[Bonus Preview] One Battle After Another Review

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Hello, dear listeners, and welcome to another bonus episode of What Went Wrong, your favorite podcast, Full Stop, that just so happens to be about movies and how it is nearly impossible to make them, let alone a good one, let alone

arguably the most incendiary movie you could release right now at this particular moment at a price tag of between $130 and $175 million, an entirely original piece of work produced and released by a major studio.

That's right.

We are discussing what film, Lizzie?

We are discussing one battle after another.

But Chris, is it actually an entirely original piece of work?

No, you're right.

You've already caught me.

It is not entirely original.

This film, written, directed, co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson was at least in part inspired by Thomas Pynchon's novel, Vineland.

Although the connections, though there, are loose.

Right.

Lizzie, before we get into the details and all of our spoily thoughts on this film, I should ask you, generally speaking, you just saw one battle after another.

Could you give us a brief spoiler-free review before we go deeper into this film?

So, guys, if you haven't seen it yet, these initial thoughts will be spoiler-free.

We will then share some information about the film,

a few fun facts about the making of and kind of how it came to be.

And then after that, we'll be getting into our spoilery thoughts, at which point, make sure you've seen the movie first.

All right, Lizzie, I kick it to you.

Well,

I think

I really liked it.

Okay.

It's no, look, the first thing that I will say is we saw this in IMAX

up here in Seattle at the Boeing IMAX Center, which was really cool.

If you have a chance to go, it was really fun.

And

one thing I noticed about two-thirds of the way through the movie, because I was in an IMAX that was like fully stadium seating, I could see everyone both in front of me and behind me.

And I looked around and the number of people who were like leaned all the way forward in their seats, you know, hands on their face, chin propped up, just absolutely wrapped by this movie, was like 50% of the audience.

So whether this movie will piss you off or not, that I cannot promise, but you will be entertained from beginning to end.

I have a lot of questions when we actually do get to the more spoiler forward part of this conversation, just in terms of like, what do you make of this?

Like, what do you make of the message of this movie?

I have some ideas

and the ideas that I have, because they're not what I expected and they're also kind of not what it feels like it sets out to be at the beginning, I was like, but am I wrong about all of these?

So we will get into that, I think, in the latter half of this conversation.

I will say most attracted I've been to Leonardo DiCaprio, maybe ever.

And I don't know what that says about me.

Wow.

No, well, I mean, not physically necessarily, although he looks good.

He always looks good.

Yeah, but personality.

Yeah, personality-wise, and also just like.

Let's get high and live in a shack in the woods, Leo.

You and me.

yeah sure he wouldn't speak to me I'm 36 but you know no it's true it's true I need to go back to my cave but yeah I thought he was wonderful it was nice to see him in a role where he was

you know, basically playing a version of the Big Lebowski, but a Leonardo DiCaprio version of it that I really enjoyed.

He was more subdued and he wasn't.

Three lily pads further down the line of the Rick Dalton performance in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Yes.

Yeah.

I thought he was great.

I thought Sean Penn was great, although I have mixed feelings about that.

And I really liked Tiana Taylor, although I was maybe the most frustrated by her character, which I think we will talk about.

All right.

And I thought Regina Hall was criminally underused.

That's sort of my hot take, high level.

And last but not least, sorry, I cannot forget to call out Chase Infinity.

She, in so many ways, is really the heart of this movie, and she absolutely holds her own against, you know, some of the best actors who have ever lived, arguably.

And I really, really enjoyed watching her.

Benicia Del Toro, obviously also wonderful.

Again, I would have liked maybe a little bit more from him in this.

We didn't get as much as we wanted.

And the last thing I'll say, Chris, is what are they feeding Tony Goldwyn?

And how do I get him?

He's clearly in the real life Christmas Adventures Club because

that man looks better than the last time I saw him.

He looks better than he did in Ghost.

And I don't understand.

How old is he?

Yeah.

Hail St.

Nick.

I don't know.

This man, it's ridiculous.

He's well in, I mean, 60s.

He's not 60.

He's 60s.

I would have guessed.

Yeah, I would have guessed 60s.

He's 60s.

He and Sean Penn are the same age.

Woof.

They do not look.

Chris, what did you think?

So I

loved sequences of this movie.

I thought overall this was an excellent movie.

I

I understand why people are saying it is a frontrunner for Best Picture.

That doesn't surprise me.

It wouldn't surprise me if this does win Best Picture, especially given the timing of its release and the consequences of its release as an original film.

As we mentioned, a very incendiary, although I would argue

less obvious in its particular messaging political film,

but being released by a major studio and a major studio that

will lose money on this film, but it won't matter because Warner Bros.

has crushed it this year with its theatrical releases.

And this is, you know, going to be, I believe it's maybe the eighth straight film that has cleared $40 million in its opening weekend under the stewardship of Michael DeLuca and Pam Abdi over there.

Kudos to them.

I,

so

again, it's a very loose,

rangy movie.

And the benefit of that is you can really settle into it.

And it feels like a world you can exist in.

The downside I felt is that there are moments when Anderson turns his attention to characters that I am not as invested in as I thought I might be and pulls me away from characters that I want to go, you know, follow more.

And the surprise for me, I was, even though I think he is very, very, very good in the movie, I was the least interested in Leo's Bob of all of the main characters.

And so

the movie has these wonderful side quests, including one, as you mentioned, led by Benicio del Toro, who plays Sensei Sergio.

And it is, not only is Dizzy give the most steen-stealingly understated performance,

but that sequence is the most emotionally moving and captivating I found of the film as well.

And I will talk about the political implications and what I think Anderson's attempting to do a little later in the review.

Not dissimilarly, Chase Infinity, as you mentioned, who plays LeonardoCaprio's daughter, Tiana Taylor, was her mother.

She also

just captivates the screen and her story is so active that when we're with her, I am fully engaged and on board, you know, in this movie.

And again, when we cut back to dad, a little less so.

So I found that the final chase sequence, which again, I'm not going to spoil, it's not spoiling anything, but there's a wonderful road car chase sequence at the end of the film shot out in Anzabarego, the deserts east of Los Angeles, where you're rolling on these hills, right, up and down.

That was my experience watching this movie, where the highs were incredibly high.

But I did notice a few lulls as a result of that.

It didn't just lock me in entirely and never let me go, kind of throttle me the whole time.

But when I learned more about how the movie was made, that actually makes perfect sense.

And so I'm excited to talk a little bit about Paul Thomas Anderson's style and his style specifically on this movie, because I think it's such a double-edged sword.

But I felt very much the same way as you, Lizzie.

I thought Tiana Taylor was fantastic as Prophetia Beverly Hills, who is a revolutionary, very much in the stylings of the Weather Underground from the 1970s, for example.

I'm excited to talk about her character, but the performance itself is fantastic.

I have read some people say that they thought Sean Penn was over the top.

I actually thought this is the best Sean Penn we've had in a long time because he's over the top in like the begrounded and over-the-topness, a cartoonish character to me.

And the movie's also filled with a lot of non-actors.

And I'm excited to talk about some of the specific names.

And so there's a lot of natural performances in the film that are the result of casting non-actors.

Also, because I'm about to dive into writing the episode for it, spoiler alert, we're going to be covering Michael Mann's Last of the Mohicans coming up.

Did you recognize the

actor who is in both Last of the Mohicans and this movie?

No.

He's the bounty hunter.

Oh, Avanti.

Yeah.

That's right.

Eric Streig.

Eric Streig.

And I love him.

He's so good in Last of the Mohicans, and it was really cool to see him sort of bring,

he's so like steady and cool, and to see him bring that to this role in this movie was, I really liked that.

All right.

So

as Lizzie mentioned, this is a really politically charged movie.

There's no way about it.

We're going to have to talk politics on this episode.

Look, if you guys are not interested in hearing a discussion of politics or our political opinions, don't listen to this review because we're going to have to get into it a little bit in this episode.

If you'd like to hear

those thoughts of ours, please join in.

And again, just our opinions.

But if you're not interested, completely understand.

All right, the details.

One Battle After Another is an American action thriller film.

It was released on September 26, 2025 by Warner Bros.

As I mentioned, the film was co-produced, written, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, inspired by Thomas Pynchon's novel, Vineland.

It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson, or as we recently learned, the almost named Lenny Williams.

That was a stage name that was suggested to him when DiCaprio was too exotic for the world.

His dad said, fuck that.

Chase Infinity as Willa Ferguson, Bob's daughter.

Tiana Taylor as Prophetia Beverly Hills, Bob's love interest,

or he's her love interests, depending on how you define the first act of the movie.

And Revolutionary.

She's Chase Infinity's mother.

Mother.

Yeah.

Sean Penn as Colonel Stephen J.

Lockjaw, which, if there was ever a name that described how somebody looked,

that is the name.

Also, very much giving Jack D Ripper for sure.

There's a decent amount here that feels evocative of Doctor Strange, big time.

Benicio del Toro as Sensei Sergio Sant Carlos.

Regina Hall, as you mentioned, as Deandra.

I agree.

Underused.

And many, many more.

Alana Heim, Jenna Malone is on the phone at one point.

I'm not sure if you recognize me.

No, I didn't.

So

the description of the film.

So the movie's interesting.

It exists in a bit of a fantasy of America because at the beginning of the film, we open with Tiana Taylor, who is a...

black revolutionary leading the French 75 or one of the leaders of the French 75, which is this left-wing extremist revolutionary group that uses bombings, for example, and raids on immigration centers to try to destabilize the militaristic control of the United States in this, again, it's kind of, I would imagine, like a reimagined 2009 because the movie eventually jumps forward 16 years to what is very much our modern day.

And so in the first act, we meet Leonardo DiCaprio, Bob Ferguson, who is very much enamored with Tiana Taylor's Perfidia Beverly Hills, who is perhaps more devoted to the cause and he's more devoted to her.

They have a relationship.

Debatable.

Yes.

Debatable.

Yeah.

Enter Sean Penn as Colonel Stephen Jay Lockjaw.

Complications ensue.

We jump forward 16 years.

Perfidia Beverly Hills, for reasons I will not spoil, is not in the immediate picture.

And Bob Ferguson is now a paranoid, big Lebowski-style, weed-smoking

hippie in the hills,

off-the-grid prepper, attempting to raise his daughter, and Tiana Taylor's daughter, Chase Infinity as Willa Ferguson.

And Sean Penn's Colonel Stephen Jay Lockjaw returns, and we get a giant chase of a movie as a result that is peppered with, as Lizzie mentioned, just so many wonderful performances throughout that kind of steal scenes and give little race notes, etc.

So the movie, as has been reported to death, carries a price tag of all rough everything out to about $150 million.

That would make it the most expensive movie of Paul Thomas Anderson's career by a mile.

I read that it is more than his previous five films combined.

This movie's incredibly sprawling.

He talked about how on Magnolia they shot for 100 days.

That's more or less what they shot here, but this movie has a lot more action and moving parts in a lot of ways than some of those movies.

Some really fun stunts in this.

Very fun stunts, including a great fall opera silver.

That was my favorite.

That's my favorite thing.

So the film has received near universal acclaim, and it feels unusually prescient, as many people have pointed out.

And yet, it is likely to fall well short of recouping its budget at the box office.

At the time of this recording, the opening weekend worldwide gross is looking to come in just shy of $50 million.

On the one hand, that's the biggest opening weekend Paul Thomas Anderson has ever had in his career.

And on the other hand, this movie is going to lose likely,

and by lose, I would like to clarify this, you know, $100 plus million dollars at the box office, depending on what was spent on marketing.

That being said, his films tend to do very well.

After the fact, they become cult films.

You know, dyno DVD sales aren't a big thing, but streaming, ancillary marketing.

It's still going to HBO Max, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So who knows what will happen down the line with this movie?

It could be a big draw.

All right, Lizzie.

Do you know anything about the history of this script in particular?

No.

Because I think it informs some of the decisions he made about the timelines of the film.

I don't.

Tell me.

Okay.

So according to an interview with Dazed, Paul Thomas Anderson has been toying with this script for 20 plus years.

So

Vineland was published in 1990, and Paul Thomas Anderson started working on the script before he even had had kids.

And so eventually it came from three different movie ideas.

So he'd written an idea about a bounty hunter, a second about a young female activist, and then the third was kind of an attempt to adapt Thomas Pynchon's Vineland.

Those three ideas coalesced into one giant Microsoft Word document.

Yes, Paul Thomas Anderson writes his screenplays in Microsoft Word.

An accessible man.

Take that final draft.

The document was at one point 600 pages long.

He claims that 500 were shit, so that's how it got that long.

And he also said in this interview, I probably could have made five more movies by now if I didn't spend so much fucking time, excuse me, so much time fucking around with stupid Microsoft Word.

End quote.

So

if you guys are familiar, Paul Thomas Anderson is very much a man of analog.

He shoots on film.

This was shot in VistaVision 35mm

cameras.

So I know Microsoft Word is digital, but it's about as analog as you can get within the digital world.

So he's working on this movie, and then he has kids, and all of a sudden there's the invention of smartphones.

And so all of these things start to influence the film.

And so I think what you can see here is that when he started working on the novel, 16 years before 1990, when Vineland is released, would be 1974, which would be an appropriate time for the French 75.

But then Paul Thomas Anderson grows up and he realizes that he's no longer the revolutionary.

He's hitting middle age.

And really, it's up to his children or his daughter, for example, to take the reins.

And so that's where you get the Chase Infinity character.

And so I think what he does is he grounds, he kind of combines his youth or the thing he was reading when he first read Vineland, and he just condenses about 30 years between them to mash it up with the revolutionaries of his kids' age.

And what's interesting is this is where we get a lot of the elements of the movie that I think work really well.

So, Paul Thomas Anderson, this is the first movie he set in contemporary time since Punch Drunk Love.

Everything else has been a period piece.

By the way, there's another Punch Drunk Love connection to this movie.

Do you know what it is?

No, what's the connection?

He offered Sean Penn a role in Punch Drunk Love.

Sorry, I did actually listen to that interview.

There's a good New York Times interview with Sean Penn.

I could not understand from that interview.

I presumed it was actually the, not the Adam Sandler role.

I thought it was the Philip Seymour Hoffman role.

Probably.

Based on the interview.

Yeah, you should listen to the interview, but basically he, Sean Penn said that he turned it down because he wanted so badly to play the Adam Sandler role.

And PTA was like, it's booked, buddy.

So he had to wait.

Well, speaking of things coming around, Leonardo DiCaprio is probably the reason this movie got greenlit at the budget that it did.

And Lizzie, he famously turned down, do you know, which leading role in a Paul Thomas Anderson film and called it the greatest regret of his career?

Is it there will be blood?

It is Boogie Nights.

Oh,

I did not know that.

That's right.

You're not going to be doing Titanic when you've got your giant prosthetic tongue out, I guess.

I guess.

So Leonardo comes full circle and joins this movie.

A lot of the film then comes from the actors.

So according to Leonardo DiCaprio, the movie originally was an almost sort of sci-fi world that he, Paul Thomas Anderson, had concocted to get rid of cell phone technology.

PTA was so against having cell phones in the movie.

To hear the rest of this bonus episode, join us on Patreon at the $5 tier or above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Otherwise, we'll see you on Friday for a primer on vampires.

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