My BRUTALLY HONEST REVIEW of ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER in IMAX!

One Battle After Another is more like “One Face After Another”, since screenwriter/director Paul Thomas Anderson spends the majority of the film with his camera right up everyone’s noses, as their faces fill the screen.

Couple Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio – Killers of The Flower Moon) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor – The Book of Clarence) are members of French 75, a far-left revolutionary group carrying direct action, by blowing shit up, regardless of who might get hurt… same as Nelson Mandela.

They want to free political prisoners, but as they go about their business – including doing bank robberies to fund their activities, they declare it’s “one battle after another“.

Hot on their tail is Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn – The Gunman), but despite being a racist and a white supremacist, he also has the hots for black women. What a tangled web for him to weave, leading to a situation where Perfidia stops him from chasing them by locking him in one of his refugee camp’s pens. Yes, Penn is penned off!

At a certain point in the proceedings, after seeing Perfidia almost at term with her new baby, whilst shooting a rifle at full tilt, the events move on 16 years later, as we follow the now teenage Willa (Chase Infiniti – Presumed Innocent (2024)) going around on manoeuvers with Dad Bob, while Lockjaw wants to join the Christmas Adventurers – an anti-immigrant organisation – and exacerbate his activities.

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As a film, this is… okay. Yes, in IMAX, it was LOUD! But in essence, One Battle After Another felt more like a 3-part mini-series, given its near-3-hour length. There’s a few humourous moments in the script, but not too many. And for all the hype this was getting, I was expecting so much more, but didn’t get it.

Paul Thomas Anderson did far better with 1999’s Magnolia. Okay, so that film is THREE HOURS, but brilliantly intertwines the storylines of nine people and uses its runtime far better.

I did like how the group have ‘trust devices’, which initially looked a bit like a Men in Black mind-wiping device, but as they emit a red light, if you get within 100m of another member of the French 75, it turns green; hence if you meet someone with one, you know that you can trust that person with your life, but you must also be able to remember the full, coded discussion for one member to identify themselves to the other.

Unlike the 1960s-set novel, Vineland, you can tell this film is set in the present day, because Bob’s daughter has a friend who’s “non-binary” and a “they/them“. There’s no such thing. He’s clearly a bloke. If you’re still on this bandwagon, give your head a wobble.

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I’m not 100% sure what’s going on with the aspect ratio in this film. In my (digital) IMAX, it was 1.90:1, yet in IMAX GT Laser screens, it’s being cropped at the sides to 1.43:1, like some scenes in Joker 2.

I understand that with this being shot in Vistavision (albeit with more than one aspect ratio possible), this film is shot at 1.50:1). So, I’d say, for a 1.43:1 screen, just show it in the original ratio, rather than cropping at the sides. You don’t HAVE to fill that screen if you don’t need to. Christopher Nolan knows that with films like Dunkirk and Interstellar, the top and bottom part of 1.43:1 is for elements in your peripheral vision, which is not what One Battle After Another is doing.

The Brutalist was also shot in Vistavision, but with an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, so not all Vistavision films are equal.

I’m all for creativity, but to make One Battle After Another narrower than 1.85:1 is unnecessary. At least Wes Anderson knows how to compose for the frame properly, with the non-Vistavision The Phoenician Scheme being filmed in 1.50:1. I saw that twice in two weeks, and loved it both times.

For the film I’m reviewing here (which would’ve been cropped top and bottom, but looked much better on the 1.90:1 screen), and I can see that you wouldn’t lose too much at the sides, but cropping for the sake of it? No thanks, Paul Thomas Anderson. Maybe the studio pressured him into it, as he usually shoots in 2.39:1.

NOTE: There’s no mid- or post-credits scenes.

One Battle After Another is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook, Blu-ray and DVD.

In the meantime, you can buy the novel on Paperback and Kindle.

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One Battle After Another – Official Trailer – Warner Bros.

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Detailed specs:

Cert:
Running time: 162 minutes
Release date: September 26th 2025
Studio: Warner Bros
Aspect ratio: 1.43:1 (IMAX GT Laser & IMAX 70mm); 1.50:1 (VistaVision), 1.85:1, 1.90:1 (digital IMAX)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 6/10

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Producers: Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy, Adam Somner
Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson
Novel: Thomas Pynchon (Vineland)
Music: Jonny Greenwood

Cast:
Bob Ferguson: Leonardo DiCaprio
Perfidia Beverly Hills: Teyana Taylor
Col. Steven J. Lockjaw: Sean Penn
Willa: Chase Infiniti
Sensei Sergio St. Carlos: Benicio Del Toro
Deandra: Regina Hall
Laredo: Wood Harris
Virgil Throckmorton: Tony Goldwyn
Avanti: Eric Schweig
Mae West: Alana Haim
Junglepussy: Shayna McHayle
Greeting Code (voice): Jena Malone
Sommerville: Paul Grimstad
Talleyrand: Dijon Duenas (as Dijon)
Sober Rick: Brooklyn Trueheart Demme
R.A. Rippey: Sachi Diserafino
Sylvia: Melissa Dueñas

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