PTA's One Battle After Another Wins Strong Reviews

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor and Sean Penn in a rollicking, Pynchon‑inspired political action film that follows washed‑up revolutionary Bob Ferguson and his teenage daughter Willa as they are drawn back into a violent, satirical struggle in an authoritarian‑tilted America. The film, loosely adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, opens with French 75 militants liberating an immigration detention center, traces Perfidia and Col. Steven Lockjaw’s obsessive conflict, and fast‑forwards 16 years when Perfidia vanishes and Bob must rescue his daughter. Critics have been broadly enthusiastic, with a reported 97% critics score and some calling it a film‑of‑the‑year contender, even as many note unevenness, pacing problems and an occasionally muddled political message. The film runs two hours and 40 minutes, is rated R for pervasive language, violence, sexual content and drug use, is distributed by Warner Bros., and opened in late September.