There are many things in One Battle After Another that can move you, that can even touch your very soul:
the breathtaking performances, especially that of Sean Penn (oh my God, that walking scene was hilarious). Leonardo DiCaprio, once again but more entertaining than ever, completely out of control. The delightful Benicio del Toro in a feel-good role. The film’s gorgeous color palette, its masterful editing, the direction. For instance, the sequence with DiCaprio being chased by the cops through the city is the most fun I’ve had in the cinema in a long while, while the car chase scene is a true cinematic achievement.
But there’s also something else which, after some quick reflections following the screening, I realized is of even greater value in a story like this:
that, in essence, this is a film that places at the center of its narrative the issue of the “old generation” of people who once tried to change the world—even if, in my opinion, through misguided means (well, it’s Hollywood, I wasn’t expecting them to highlight the importance of collective struggle; and since I went in aware of what I was going to see, I won’t hold that against the film). It’s the generation that gave everything, at a time when the sense of historical defeat—the “loss of historicity,” essentially—was not yet the dominant ideological condition, producing the supposedly apolitical “indifference” and, in reality, social apathy. And this older generation, after defeat, has surrendered, has compromised. The embodiment of this loss of historicity is DiCaprio’s character: trapped in the small world of his provincial town, addicted to drugs and alcohol, a ghost of the righteous anger and energy of the past, with only one constant—the love for his daughter.
This sense had not been portrayed in this way on screen before, perhaps because it had not yet been historically codified. That is the “historical function” of this film, along with, of course, the relentless satire it unleashes not only on U.S. “conservatism” but also on the deeper power relations at the core of the socio-economic system. I honestly did not expect to hear “death to imperialism” in a Hollywood film in 2025.
Yet while it captures the sense of defeat, the film is not consumed by it; instead, it highlights—if only spontaneously—a glimmer of hope, a stubbornness, a persistence in the struggle embodied by the new generation. “We failed, but maybe you won’t.”
And even if it didn’t have all of this, it would still be an excellent film for the reasons I mentioned at the start. But it is this element that makes it truly engage with its time and stand out.
Overall—just watch it!
