“Viva La Revolution!” Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) screams to his daughter’s martial arts teacher, who immediately slides into a trap door after raising a fist in acknowledgment.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” follows a militant revolutionary group called the French 75 — specifically two members, Pat Calhoun (also DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor). The two have a baby and despite Pat wanting to settle down, Perfidia continues her revolutionary activities until she gets caught and has to flee.
For their safety, Pat and the child enter witness protection, and change their identities to Bob and Willa Ferguson (Chase Infiniti). Sixteen years later, Bob, now an extremely paranoid stoner, raises Willa as a single father in California. His paranoia comes to fruition when Willa is stalked and kidnapped by Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn), a member of a white supremacist group. Lockjaw is revealed to be Willa’s biological father, a fact he fervently seeks to erase. As revolutionaries separately attempt to help Willa, Bob is sent on a wild goose chase to rescue his daughter.
The highlight of the film is its outstanding performances. This includes the young Chase Infiniti, who makes an absolute splash in her first film role as Willa Ferguson. While Leonardo DiCaprio is no newcomer to the screen, his 36th film role is arguably one of his funniest performances — one guaranteed to dad joke-induced groans. The cinematography and direction are equally deserving of praise, as they truly immerse the audience in the movie. Audiences may experience nausea as the image fixates vertically during a car chase over the mountains of the California desert.
“One Battle After Another” does not promote the violence performed by the French 75. In fact, it opens by framing the group through absurdism and the narrative makes clear that their actions are ultimately inconsequential to actual change. A once “revolutionary hero” is portrayed as a washed-up drug addict 16 years later. Not to mention, it is established he was never really that revolutionary to begin with. More than anything else, he was lovestruck.
The movie never satirizes or challenges the heroics of the bond between father and daughter. Bob is in no means portrayed as a perfect father, but if anything his occasional shortcomings and failures to connect with Willa prove how much he cares for her. While it may be unclear how devoted Bob ever was to radical militancy, Anderson never leaves audiences doubtful regarding Bob’s love for his daughter, and it becomes clear that Bob’s most revolutionary action was never breaking out detained immigrants or infiltrating bank robberies (both of which he wasn’t exactly very good at), but raising a strong and independent daughter who can think for herself and is eager to make change.
It is this message that makes the film a must-watch. In our increasingly polarized society, the idea that love is a revolutionary force remains incredibly relevant. The politics of this movie effectively inspire hope in viewers that revolution and resistance is possible, yet its true power is not communicated through the militant radical actions we first see take place in the movie. Instead, the hope comes from something we can all do: love.
