One Battle After Another (2025) review

Left-wing activists Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his girlfriend Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) are a part of a revolutionary group called French 75 - they rob banks and assist Mexicans coming into the United States at the border - but Perfidia is arrested, snitches on her colleagues, abandons the child she had with Bob and goes into witness protection; sixteen years go by, Bob is burned out and trying to raise his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) by himself, except the U.S. military is still hunting down 'illegals' and Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) kidnaps Willa, believing she's his offspring.  While the subject matter is timely, considering the ongoing raids by the financially bolstered Immigration and Customs Enforcement department (under Emperor #47) and multiple individuals from the 'right-wing' are unapologetically obsessed with fascist ideology (Lockjaw is desperate to join the cultish Christmas Adventurers Club that forbids 'race mixing'), it isn't exactly an area Anderson's altogether comfortable with and tonally it's a mess: the blaxploitation-esque dialogue in act one is embarrassing, DiCaprio (wearing a bathrobe most of the movie) is attempting to play The Dude from The Big Lebowski and all the characters are too black and white (either they're racists or open-border loving "radicals") with no nuance.  Naturally, it looks sharp, the soundtrack (by Jonny Greenwood) is interesting and karate instructor/smuggler Sergio (Benicio del Toro) is a stand-out every second he's on screen, but an anonymous comment on a movie-themed message board nails it: "Footloose is more political than this."  Also: curtain rod 1, Leo 0.