One battle after another on VOD: a virtuoso and euphoric action comedy (review)
The summit meeting between Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio leads to a shot of adrenaline and great American cinema.
It is one of the favorites for the 2026 Oscars, in competition with Sinnerswho broke the nominations record of Titanic. One battle after another is now available for rental on VOD, but also in physical format (DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K). The opportunity to see or rewatch Paul Thomas Anderson’s film, praised by the biggest names in Hollywood (Spielberg in the lead), and of course by First which placed it at the top of its top of the best films of 2025. Our review:
Watch One Battle After Another on VOD on Première Max
“What time is it?”asks the mystery interlocutor on the line. Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) can’t answer, he has a gap: he knows he has to give a password, learned by heart in the Revolutionary’s Handbookbut it’s been a while since he opened this book. It must also be said that his brain is fried by drugs and alcohol, ingested in high doses for years. Without a password, it is impossible to reach the hideout where his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) has found refuge, impossible to help her escape the clutches of Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), a racist and bloodthirsty colonel. Bob will then need a helping hand from Willa’s karate teacher, Sensei Sergio (Benicio Del Toro), to regain his action-man reflexes. Because, sixteen years earlier, Bob was an exceptional fighter, an expert in explosives leading the war against the authorities within the small group of French 75…
“What time is it?” is also a question that we can ask ourselves when One battle after anotherthe new Paul Thomas Anderson. Or rather: what era are we in exactly? The film is loosely inspired by a book by Thomas Pynchon, Vinelandwhich recounted the hangover of radical activists from the sixties in the midst of a conservative backlash, under Reagan, in the 80s. But PTA had the brilliant idea of transposing this plot into contemporary America. A way for him to escape the baba nostalgia and post-hippie decorum that he explored more than his turn, with Boogie Nights, Inherent Vice And Licorice Pizza.
It is also a way of saying that the Trumpian leaden screed currently falling on the United States is the culmination of a counter-revolution started a long time ago, in reaction to the activism of the 1960s. But PTA avoids history-geography classes and political preaching like the plague: he uses this blurring of reference points to invent a poetic vision of US history, a temporal short circuit mixing references from yesterday and today, The Battle of Algiers and Black Lives Matter, soul prophet Gil Scott-Heron and rapper Junglepussy, culminating in a fabulous uchronistic farce.
However, do not fear that this political-Pynchonian concoction is one of those impenetrable puzzles of which PTA may have the secret. One Battle after anotherbasically, it’s the anti-Inherent Vice. Despite DiCaprio’s Big Lebowski look, this is not a smoky, unwatchable maze film. The plot goes straight and avoids any detours: it involves saving a young girl from the hands of the enemy, as in an inverted version of The Prisoner of the Desertwith white supremacists playing the role of Indians. After a first act where PTA mixes, with breathtaking fluidity and musicality, a quantity of characters, places, information, the film begins to rush towards its point of arrival, aligning its cartoon rhythm with that of DiCaprio’s character (once again brilliant), boomer out of phase but ultimately too happy to take up arms again.
“What a crazy movie”: Spielberg cheers One battle after another
One Battle after another perhaps plunges you head first into the contemporary American political morass (starting with the exploration of the sickest fringes of its ancestral racism), it does so with the generosity of a great Saturday evening show, full to the brim with gags, suspense, emotion, chases with guns in hand and feet on the floor. PTA was sometimes able to give the image of an aesthete locked in the trap of his own virtuosity. This will not be the case with this film with its insane energy, which leaves its viewer with a big smile on their lips, their heart pounding and their eyes bulging.
One battle after another (One Battle After Another), by Paul Thomas Anderson, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti… In theaters September 24.
