One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) is terrific. I could tell from the first frame I was going to like it, and by the second frame, I was fully onboard.

The first reason I instantly connected with it is that, aesthetically, it feels like a spiritual cousin to Punch-Drunk Love (my favourite PTA movie), what with its restless, kinetic energy, vibrant visual palette, and percussive soundtrack. It’s also quirky, is often very funny, has a loose, semi-irmprovised feel at times, and has a big ensemble cast, all of which are hallmarks of PTA’s first four/best (to me) films. The other big reason I connected with it is Leonardo DiCaprio.

Despite being one of the all-time most bankable movie stars, Leo’s also sort of underrated as an actor. Sure, everyone knows he’s good, and he has been since his first significant movie role in This Boy’s Life, but when people are talking about the greats, his name usually isn’t in the conversation. It definitely should be, and not just because he’s pretty much the reason Martin Scorsese’s been able to make big-budget movies for the last 20+ years. The thing about Leo, the thing that, in my opinion, makes people take him somewhat for granted, is that his performances always seem so natural, almost effortless; in other words, you never see him “acting.” His performance in One Battle After Another is a perfect example of this. It’s a real pleasure to watch.

As for the other aspects of the movie? … Well, as I said, I was hooked from frame-two, and from then on, through every one of the subsequent 161 minutes/231,840-or-so frames, my attention never wavered and my enjoyment only increased. PTA reportedly got around $150 million to make this (almost four times what his previously highest budget was), and you can see the money up on the screen. There are some big set-pieces and action sequences here. Notably, PTA shoots the latter in, as you’d expect from him, uniquely interesting ways (a rooftop escape and highway chase are particularly notable).

A few other things I’ll mention (I haven’t said anything about the plot, and I’m not going to, as, like most movies, it’s best to go in as cold as possible): The acting is, as one would expect, all-around great—Sean Penn is grotesquely, rather courageously, unhinged. I also really appreciate that the film starts in medias res (essentially, eschewing a first act), and, thankfully, does not double-back on itself, but, instead, just keeps going forward. I’d be remiss if I didn’t comment on how the medium looks, too. I saw a 70mm presentation, and the clarity and quality of the large-format celluloid source comes through beautifully in the rich colours, particularly the blacks, so I recommend seeing this movie on the biggest/widest screen possible, projected through film, if the latter option is at all available.