One Battle After Another is Rated R by Motion Picture Rating (MPA) for pervasive language, violence, sexual content, and drug use.
Paul Thomas Anderson has always been a director whose films breathe the air of their time and place. The eras he chooses don’t just serve as backdrops they feel like living, breathing characters. Think of the oil-stained wastelands in There Will Be Blood, the shell-shocked disquiet of The Master, or the hazy, hedonistic 1970s in Boogie Nights. Given how vividly he has conjured the past, it’s almost surprising he’s never turned his camera fully on the present—until now. With One Battle After Another, Anderson dives headlong into modern America, exposing it as a country rotting from within, locked in a brutal clash between rebels and the powerful. Its accuracy is enough to leave you rattled.
The film kicks off with appropriately anarchic energy. A militant activist group called The French 75 stages a daring rescue at a detention center, freeing a group of immigrants. At the head of the operation is Perfidia Beverly Hills played with fiery charisma by Teyana Taylor (The Book of Clarence) in a performance that practically hijacks the screen. Alongside her comrades, she fights for justice and liberation, and Anderson, working with co-cinematographer Michael Bauman (Licorice Pizza), renders the darkness of America in images so stark they’re impossible to shake. But the revolution doesn’t last long. After Perfidia kills a guard and is captured, the group fractures. Sixteen years later, her former lover Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) is left to raise their daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), in secret.
The film’s jump across nearly two decades is handled with Anderson’s trademark ease, a reminder of how deftly he balances sprawling casts. The ensemble here is dizzyingly large, yet each character sparks with vivid life. Sean Penn delivers a grotesque, magnetic turn as Steven J. Lockjaw, an old nemesis with vengeance on his mind, while Benicio del Toro slips effortlessly into the role of Sergio St. Carlos, a martial arts instructor whose calm exterior masks his underground revolutionary leanings. Anderson weaves these stories together with feverish energy, characters colliding and separating in a restless dance. Still, the absence of Perfidia from much of the film stings not only because her character is so compelling, but because Taylor’s performance deserves far more time on screen.
As for the writing, Anderson’s pen has rarely been sharper. Language itself becomes a weapon in the film, as potent as any firearm. Politicians and media figures refuse to call these insurgents “revolutionaries,” instead branding them “maniacs” or “psychopaths.” Anderson builds layer upon layer of such loaded distinctions, embedding his screenplay with razor-sharp critiques of American politics. The satire cuts deeply; the surreal machinations happening behind closed doors feel exaggerated, yet chillingly in step with our reality. One can’t help but sense the shadow of Trump-era America looming in every frame.
Yes, One Battle After Another is chaotic, sometimes teetering on the edge of incoherence—but that untamed quality feels deliberate, a mirror of the disorder consuming the world it depicts. The climax, a car chase along an endless, undulating stretch of road, crystallizes Anderson’s talent for transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. There are no fiery explosions or bullet-riddled vehicles; instead, tension mounts from precision editing by Andy Jurgensen, the pulse of Jonny Greenwood’s score, and Anderson’s meticulous staging. What could have been a generic action sequence becomes hypnotic, terrifying, and entirely his own.
Ultimately, One Battle After Another is Anderson at his most unrestrained a furious, messy, and exhilarating work that channels the chaos of our current moment into something unforgettable. Like his greatest films, it lingers long after the credits roll, less as a neatly packaged narrative than as a fever dream of the times we’re living in.
One Battle After 2025 Another Parents Guide
Violence: There’s gunplay, fistfights, a jailbreak, explosions (not all literal some emotional), and deaths. Characters are shot, stabbed, beaten. Bodies may not always be soaked in blood like a Tarantino showcase, but the threat feels real and relentless. A scene of Perfidia killing a guard is a turning point; later, vengeance-chasing villains, masked gunmen, paramilitary tactics all the usual “this is America now” chaos.
Language: Swear words don’t just visit they live in the walls, host dinner parties, and demand drinks. “Fuck,” “shit,” “goddamn,” and their cousins are abundant, often used not for shock but as part of the everyday rhetoric of anger, blame, rebellion. Authorities and revolutionaries alike sling insults and rhetorical venom with zero hesitation.
Sexual Content / Nudity: There’s some nudity and sexual references, though compared to the violent and verbal onslaught, it’s relatively mild. You’ll see suggestive situations, implied acts, brief nudity. There is sexual tension and manipulation (especially in the interplay between Perfidia and Lockjaw), and it’s used as a weapon psychologically more than erotically.
Substance Use / Drugs: People get messed up. Alcohol and drug use are part of the fabric of characters trying to numb, escape, revolt, or sink. Addiction, relapse, and self-destruction show up as undercurrents. These aren’t glamorized escapes they’re messy, regretful, and tied into character arcs (especially Bob’s).
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Genre: Thriller, Dark Comedy, Action, Crime, Drama
Rated: R
Run Time: 201′
Release Date: September 26, 2025
Where to Watch ‘One Battle After Another’: In U.K. and Irish cinemas, in U.S. and Canadian theaters, and globally in theatres
Highly Recommended:
I am a journalist with 10+ years of experience, specializing in family-friendly film reviews.