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“One Battle After Another” Review Round Up: Paul Thomas Anderson Delivers a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

By The Credits  |  September 19, 2025

A recent re-watch of Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood reminded me—reconfirmed, really—that my experience in the theater watching his masterpiece, with an absolutely mesmerizing performance from Daniel Day-Lewis as the soused, ruthless oilman Daniel Plainview, had been exactly as transforming as I’d always remembered. It was and remains my favorite cinematic experience, and I’d waited years (decades, actually) to rewatch it. While finally sitting down and absorbing Anderson’s tale of carnivorous greed in America of the late 19th and early 20th Century on my couch wasn’t quite as transporting as being plastered to my seat in a New York City theater, it still had me entirely in its grip from the thrilling, wordless opening sequence to the deranged, bloody end.

Now, PTA is back with another film that promises a potentially equally momentous theater experience—with all due respect to the excellent Phantom Thread (2017) and the lovely coming-of-age drama Licorice Pizza (2021)—One Battle After Another looks more akin to TWBB in that it deals with men (and this time, women) in extremis. Only for the first time since Punch Drunk Love, Anderson has set his film in the present day; in this case, in an America that’s turned into a police state, where ex-revolutionaries, including Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), must reunite after an old enemy resurfaces and Bob’s daughter has been kidnapped.

Caption: (L-r) TEYANA TAYLOR as Perfidia and LEONARDO DI CAPRIO as Bob Ferguson in “One Battle After Another.” A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

The critics have been weighing in on PTA’s latest, and the reviews have confirmed that the writer/director, here adapting and reshaping Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland,” has struck gold (oil?) once again. Reuniting with his go-to composer, Jonny Greenwood, and surrounding DiCaprio with a cast of scene stealers, including Teyana Taylor, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Sean Penn, Alana Haim, and Wood Harris, Anderson has pulled off a breathless, bonkers tour de force.

Following its world premiere in Los Angeles on September 8, critics have been praising Battle to such a degree that it currently holds a 97% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 96% critics’ score on Metacritic.

Let’s take a quick peek at what some of those critics are saying. One Battle After Another opens on September 26.

Featured image: Caption: LEONARDO DI CAPRIO as Bob Ferguson in “One Battle After Another.” A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

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The Credits

The Credits is the Motion Picture Association's online platform that profiles below-the-line filmmakers and TV creators. Through in-depth interviews and coverage, we shine a spotlight on all the individuals who are indispensable to the entertainment industry and create the films and series we love.