Paul Thomas Anderson wanted to adapt Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland since the early 2000s. One Battle After Another is inspired by that novel, with Anderson folding his own stories into the screenplay. The budget ran $130–175 million, the most expensive film of his career. It has grossed over $213 million worldwide and won Best Picture at the 98th Academy Awards.
Trailer, via Leonardo DiCaprio.
Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob
DiCaprio plays Bob, a washed-up former revolutionary living off the grid in the sanctuary city of Baktan Cross, California. Sixteen years after his old life ended, Bob is a paranoid stoner. He is protective of his daughter Willa, a free-spirited teenager who resents his substance abuse.
Bob told her that her mother was a hero who died when she was a baby. That lie is the engine of the whole film.
Sean Penn as Col. Steven J. Lockjaw
Penn won Best Supporting Actor for this. Lockjaw begins as a commanding officer sexually humiliated by Perfidia during a detention center break-out, and the obsession never leaves him. He lets her go after she agrees to meet him for sex. Perfidia is later arrested after murdering a security guard during a botched bank robbery, and Lockjaw arranges for her to avoid prison in exchange for information on key French 75 members.
Sixteen years on, Lockjaw is a colonel and a prominent figure in U.S. security agencies. When the Christmas Adventurers Club, a white supremacist secret society, invites him in, he moves to kill Willa to hide his past interracial relationship with Perfidia.
Chase Infiniti as Willa
Infiniti makes her film debut here, and she earned it through a six-month audition process with multiple callbacks, camera tests and chemistry reads with DiCaprio and Hall. Casting director Cassandra Kulukundis said Anderson’s criteria were wide open: “Doesn’t matter if they’ve ever acted before, if they’re a star, if I found them in school, if I find them on the street.”
Infiniti had been a kickboxing trainer and trained for months in karate and mixed martial arts to handle her own stunts and intense scenes with Penn.
What VistaVision Buys
Anderson shot on VistaVision, one of the first films to use the format since the 1960s. Principal photography ran in California from January to June 2024. The runtime is 162 minutes.
Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Wood Harris fill out an ensemble that never wastes a beat.
The Awards Run
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| September 8, 2025 | Premiere |
| September 26, 2025 | U.S. release, Warner Bros. Pictures |
| 31st Critics’ Choice Awards | 3 wins, including Best Picture |
| 32nd Actor Awards | 1 win from a record 7 nominations |
| 98th Academy Awards | 13 nominations, 6 wins |
The Numbers
- Runtime: 162 minutes
- Budget: $130–175 million
- Worldwide gross: over $213 million
- Metacritic: 95/100
- Oscar nominations: 13
- Oscar wins: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Casting
Where It Stumbles
The film’s weakest stretch is its middle hour, where the plot mechanics start to crowd out the characters. It recovers. The final act belongs to Infiniti and Penn, and it earns the length.
What matters most here is that Anderson finally made the Pynchon-inspired film he wanted, and Warner Bros. let him spend like it mattered. The result is a crime comedy that takes paranoia seriously without ever mistaking it for wisdom. The six Academy Awards are the industry’s answer, and they are deserved.
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