![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/06600-one-battle-after-another-2025-movie-box-art-3637403114-261x300.jpg\")
By Steve Crum<\/p>\nBy Steve Crum<\/p>\n
And the Co-Winner of Crum\u2019s Most Wildly Wordy Film Title of the First Quarter of the 21st Millennium is\u2026One Battle After Another<\/i>. It ties with 2022\u2019s Everything Everywhere All At Once<\/i>. But like the latter, One Battle<\/i> has its own vision driven by its own greatness\u2014including co-producer\/writer\/director Paul Thomas Anderson and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti. Add tech & stunt crews at their peak.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This film is stunning, an amazing achievement.<\/p>\n Paul Thomas Anderson has given us movie greatness before, particularly his 2007 work, Let There Be Blood<\/i>. He has risen to the occasion once again with One Battle After Anothe<\/i>r, studio labeled as a \u201cblack comedy- Is there any reference herein to current events, circa 2025-26? Consider a line spoken by Sean Penn\u2019s military officer, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw, who pursues The French 75: \u201cIf you want to save the planet, you\u2019ve got to start with immigration.\u201d Hmm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In a proverbial nutshell, One Battle\u2019s<\/i> plot opens on revolutionaries \u201cGhetto\u201d Pat Calhoun (DiCaprio) and Perfidia, who are lovers, as they do what they and their F-25 group do well: set bombs and fires while freeing immigrants from a detention center.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Segue to 16 years later when Perfidia and Pat\u2019s 16 year-old girl, Willa (Chase Infiniti), are living in a sanctuary city of California. The whereabouts of her absent mother really drives the movie to multiple happenings, so no spoilers here. By this time, dad Pat is a bonafide pot head who has become the ol\u2019 toke at home who lazes around while his kid Willa has become the brains of the family. By the way, for most of the rest of the movie, Pat dresses in the same pajamas and robe\u2014including the many outdoor sequences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Adding fuel to Lockjaw\u2019s violent battles is the inclusion of The Christmas Adventures Club\u2014an organization of wealthy\u2026white men. Enough said. See it to believe it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to those mentioned, other particularly good cast members are Benicio del Toro as Willa\u2019s karate teacher and leader of undocumented immigrants; and Regina Hall (Deandra\/\u201cLady Champagne\u201d of F-75. Speaking of names, Anderson\u2019s dark humor seems to include a homage to Stanley Kubrick\u2019s Dr. Strangelove<\/i>. Col. Lockjaw vs Gen. Jack D. Ripper, anyone?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Oscar worthy cinematography, music (unconventional) and production design help tie the bow on this totally unpredictable, epic motion picture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n __________<\/p>\n GRADE on an A-F Scale: A<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Steve Crum And the Co-Winner of Crum\u2019s Most Wildly Wordy Film Title of the First Quarter of the 21st Millennium is\u2026One Battle After Another. It ties with 2022\u2019s Everything Everywhere All At Once. But like the latter, One Battle has its own vision driven by its own greatness\u2014including co-producer\/writer\/director…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3550"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3567,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions\/3567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/th-3727334016-300x200.jpeg\")
action-thriller.\u201d Telling the story from the viewpoint of modern day American anarchists, \u201cThe French 75,\u201d is unique in itself. By the conclusion, 162 minutes later, plot complexities have enveloped the likes of the federal government, including the military, and a pregnancy that fuels an influential, undercover hate group.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/leonardo-dicaprio-in-een-scene-van-one-battle-after-another-3579842325-300x200.jpeg\")
Incidentally, when Lockjaw first encounters the revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), it is the most lewdly hilarious scene in film history. Hands down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crumonshowbiz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIP-3054435205.6ut15so22H4kZDRrgOIQfAHaEK-300x168.jpg\")
Re-enter Col. Lockjaw, whose very active military duty still includes chasing down every last member of F-75, a group still active. (Pat is retired, and not on the grid.) Lockjaw is particularly interested in finding Willa, even though they have never met. Fear not, their link is clarified in the film early on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n