“PTA first action thriller an awesome & epic homage to 70-90s action movie”

Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson

Prod: Adam Somner, Sara Murphy

Writ: Paul Thomas Anderson, Thomas Pynchon

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor

I love this movie so much! This is, like Steven Spielberg based on The Hollwood Reporter report on September, 9 2025 (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/steven-spielberg-one-battle-after-another-review-1236365912/) said, “an insane movie” because it really is. This feels like a new generation of movies such as The French Connection, Bullitt, and Lethal Weapon. Oh man, I love this movie so much.

This is one of those cases where an auteur director like Paul Thomas Anderson makes a fun action movie just like Richard Donner did, going from The Omen, an artsy & influential film, to Superman and The Goonies, and then making a slam-bang action movie like Lethal Weapon. It’s the same case here with Paul Thomas Anderson, going from artsy dramas like Boogie Nights, surreal rom-coms like Punch Drunk Love, and period pieces like There Will Be Blood, The Master, Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza, and Inherent Vice, and then suddenly he makes the most fun, accessible, fast-paced action movie in One Battle After Another.

The plot is actually very simple. DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, an ex-revolutionary from the group French 75. Now he has a daughter named Willa, and Steven Lockjaw a military officer played by Sean Penn who wants to catch Bob and Willa because Bob used to do dangerous things. So the cat-and-mouse game begins, and that’s the simplified plot. But this movie is deeper than that. It bends genres between action, drama, and satire and wow, what a movie three hours non-stop chases and action.

The acting of course, this is a Paul Thomas Anderson movie all of them are first class. But Chase Infiniti and Sean Penn somehow steal the show despite DiCaprio being the lead role. Man, these two are doing such a great job. Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, Benicio Del Toro all the actors and actresses are awesome. The cinematography is first-rate, and the score by Jonny Greenwood is incredible. The one you hear in the trailer oh my god, that’s first-rate and scary. And for PTA’s first time directing an action movie, this is one of the best.

In the first and second acts, he borrows a lot from the best the likes of Christopher Nolan and early Michael Bay and in the final act, he channels William Friedkin and Richard Donner, which is wonderful. This is the type of movie you’ll either love or hate, because some characters are unlikable but that’s the point. Both left and right sides of politics have problems, and PTA shows that both sides can be equally problematic the effect of domestic terrorism, and how the military and police hold power over everything. That’s why this movie feels so different compared to any other political action film with a similar message.

Overall, if you love original and action-packed movies, go watch this. Trust me in ten years, when this plays on TV, you’ll love it just like the first Lethal Weapon. This is an almost three hour epic funny, large scale, and full of energy that you don’t want to miss in this movie. Go see it if you miss the ’70s to late ’80s era, because this is the kind of movie they used to make.

Believe the hype. My Rating: A