One Battle After Another - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

One Battle After Another



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4K Video:
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Movie
Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the three Anderson’s that have more misses than hits for me. While I love the whimsical takes of Wes Anderson and the pulpy fun of Paul W.S. Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson sometimes gets a bit too into the weeds to extricate himself from them. I absolutely adore films like Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, and Punch-Drunk Love. He’s also done a LOT of films that just go straight over my head. Licorice Pizza was controversial for a reason (though I ended up enjoying it a bit), and The Phantom Thread was a tad too ethereal for my tastes. So when I saw his latest film trailer for One Battle After Another, my spidey sense started tingling. And after the typical political influencers started praising it as “the best attack on this administration ever!” or “the wokiest woke film that has ever woked” (depending on which side of the political fence they land on), I knew this was going to be an interesting watch.

While I’ve never shied away from stating on what side of the political fence I land on, I try to keep politics OUT of my reviews for the most part. And by that I mean I may bring up a few points that bother me, or warn people of political persuasion that a particular film leans the opposite direction, and they may take issue with that. But at the end of the day, I like to watch and enjoy films as works of art, and view them through that lens vs. trying to love or hate a film based upon the political deals of the director/writing team. But One Battle After Another is formulated such that there is absolutely NO WAY to extricate the politics from the film itself. They like to say that art is political, and in this case, there’s no denying it. Paul Thomas Anderson has infused a 1970s revolutionary type film with elements of satire, hyperbole, and a general warped view of how he perceived 2025. It's strange, intoxicating, with a diverse array of incredible actors each playing their particular characters to comical degrees.

Sixteen years ago, Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) were part of a revolutionary group known as the “French 75”, who were dedicated to open borders, ACAB, no one is illegal on stolen land, the whole works. The group ends up coming across the radar one Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn, who hams the role up to 15 out of 10), a white supremacist hardliner who will stop at nothing in order to hunt them down. But weirdly, two opposites attract, leading to both the Colonel and Perfidia into having a secret carnal affair. Fathering a child (who knows if it’s the Colonel's or Pat’s), Perfidia, Pat, and the rest of the group continue with their roles as revolutionaries until a bank robbery goes wrong and Perfidia ends up behind bars.

Fast forward 16 years, and both Pat and his 16-year-old daughter Willa (Chase Infinit) are living off the grid out in a small town. Pat goes by Bob Ferguson, and Willa lives a “semi” normal life under the guiding hand of her paranoid (and pot-smoking) father. But trouble is headed their way, as Colonel Lockjaw (seriously, the name is just so over the top I can’t stop laughing) has joined a super-secret white supremacist group of politicians and military members who manipulate the government behind the scenes to foster white purity. This group, known as “The Christmas Adventurer’s Club,” is running a background check on Colonel Lockjaw, prompting the military commander to hunt down Bob and Willa to clean up any trace that he may possibly have fathered a mixed-race child. As the merciless colonel comes to town to get rid of the “evidence” of his indiscretion, Bob and Willa have to figure out how to survive when the entire weight of the U.S. Military is brought down upon them.

I’m genuinely torn on One Battle After Another. Anderson does a good job at ripping both sides to shreds (to a certain extent), but he’s hyperbolized and amplified both sides to absolutely comical proportions that it's hard to take anything seriously in the film. The French 75 and the rest of the “revolutionaries” are absolute violent nut bags. Bomb, steal, spout super secret code lingo (that gets hilariously lampooned when Bob is trying to figure out the extraction point), and generally act like they’re reading from a spy novel from the 1970s, but at the end of the day, act like every other group of criminals. And on the other side of the fence is Colonel Lockjaw and the Christmas Adventurers Club. They’re so hyperbolized to the point of absurdity that I was genuinely having huge belly laughs whenever they were on screen. Sean Penn is hamming it up as the Colonel, adding this herky jerky swagger to his character and playing him like the most gravely mouthed version of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men that he possibly could. And the rest of the “club” is downright hilarious. They’re all mustache-twirling super villains who are here to eradicate the evil of colored people, and wax eloquent about their purity. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, has any level of grounding going on. Even the people in the small town where Bob and Willa reside. They’re all activists running an underground railroad, and when things pop off, they turn into commandos.

Part of me wants to believe that Paul Anderson was going for a satirical take on things and intentionally ramped them up to level 15 out of 10. But the other half of me wonders if he really thinks this way. Either way, there are two conflicting elements in the film. One, what I’ve already mentioned before. The rampant hyperbole and comic book levels of absurdity in politics. Two, he crafted a genuinely good story about a father looking to protect his daughter that gets hidden in that muck. Leonardo is absolutely fabulous as Bob/Pat. He’s crazed, desperate, a bit raked out of his mind due to hitting up a joint just before the Colonel descends on his town, but all in all, an amazingly intense performance. Benicio Del Toro is almost as amped up, playing a Latino underground railroad head who teaches Willa’s martial arts class (and runs around the entire film with his gi pants on). And Willa works wonders as a teen trying to live in the real world, as well as the revolutionary paranoia that her dad lives in.

At the end of the day, I like some of the movie, and have to admit that Anderson is a master of cinematography and pacing. For a near 3 hour film, I never really felt like it was overlong. But on the flip side, the politics lean so heavily into hyperbole and a VERY obvious left-leaning bent that it is no wonder that this was one of the most controversial films of the year. People are either praising it as the “spark that sets off the revolution!” level of glazing, while others are snarling and ranting about it being the wokest thing that ever woke, and I can see both sides being accurate. This feels like Paul Thomas Anderson’s views on the 2025 world that we live in, and amplified with his own special brand of hyperbole to highlight injustices he sees out there. And at the same time, this film so obviously swings so far left that it alienates half the audience. I loved portions of the movie, but I will admit that if you’re right-leaning, this is NOT going to be a lazy Sunday afternoon watch for you. I said this at the beginning of the review, and I stick by it. There is absolutely no way to extricate the politics from the film itself, as they are so intimately intertwined in the narrative that if you take one out of the other, the entire thing falls apart.




Rating:

Rated R for pervasive language, violence, sexual content, and drug use




4K Video: Video:

One thing that made me more excited than anything was the fact that Anderson used 35mm film stock for the shoot, and shot mostly on VistaVision cameras to get that old school 1970s look to things. This is a heavily stylized shoot, with greens and dusty browns permeating everything. Even 16 years into the future, when things sharpen up, there’s this rich mahogany look to everything that is just so intense. But to note, this film has been shown 1.43:1 IMAX to 1.85:1 for the theatrical mix, so while it would have been nice for both ratios, I kinda get why Warner compromised with 1.78:1 for the home video release.

This is objectively a great-looking film, with strong colors and amazing detail levels. But I did notice black levels crush from time to time (such as the scene where Bob falls from the rooftop while running from the cops). That being said, it’s very fleeting and mostly just in a few spots. The 4K UHD’s native Dolby Vision adds a sense of depth and pop to the faded 1970s hues, and the black levels (despite that little bit of crush) look very revealing in most scenes, with great shadow details, even inside Bob and Willa’s grimy home.









Audio:

One Battle After Another’s Atmos track is a treat to listen to, and while it is not the most “in your face” Atmos track that I’ve ever heard, it’s certainly a clever-sounding film that has endless variations in its implementation of the track. Like most of his films, this is front-heavy for a majority of the run time, but there are sorts of little auditory daliances around the room, ranging from the tinkling of the piano score that highlights the entire film, down to the rattling of gunfire in the distance, or the screaming of teenagers while Colonel Lockjaw raids the school dance. Probably the most intense and unique experience in the whole track is the final car chase scene, which incorporates three different vehicles, each of them making its own distinct sounds while they race. The Dodge Charger rumbles and throbs with low-end power, while the Ford Mustang screams with energy, and even Bob’s stolen Nissan whines and struggles to keep up with it all. All in all, this is nearly a perfect track, with great use of subtle overheads and surrounds, while making sound that can be distinctly heard from any point in the room and carrying its own unique signature.







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Final Score: ​

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another feels like a spiritual successor to his last controversial film, Licorice Pizza, in that it is a love letter to the 1970s and that free spirit revolutionary vibe that came from that era. And just like Licorice Pizza, it is going to be HIGHLY controversial. In this case, due to the politics vs. an age differential relationship. Personally, I find this one of the hardest films to recommend or “poo-poo” simply due to the nature of how intrinsic the politics are to the story. On one hand, levels of hyperbole without obvious satirical tells make me wonder if this will genuinely alienate half the U.S. population, while the other half of me really loves the pacing and the single inherent story of a father willing to do what it takes to save his daughter. As such, I don’t think I can recommend it, but rather point out all of the reasons for and against the film and let the audience make that choice for themselves. It’s a well-crafted film, acting as a Paul Thomas Anderson vehicle for his views on postmodern activism. It’s filled with wonderful performances, and some absolutely BONKERS narrative points that border on insanity, but at the end of the day, this is Paul Thomas Anderson. Either you like his films, or you don’t. The 4K UHD disc looks and sounds great, but strangely, there are zero extras on the discs (both the 4K and the Blu-ray), and supposedly, there is a special edition steelbook in the works that WILL come with a third disc of special features. So while die-hard fans may want to get this immediately, those who want extras will probably want to wait for the steelbook.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Chase Infiniti, Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Chase Infiniti, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor
Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Warner Bro's
Rated: R
Runtime: 161 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: January 20th, 2026

Recommendation: Controversial Watch