One Battle After Another
2025-09-26
Vancouver, BC

Reporting back in after my second watch. It's still fantastic! I would honestly call it incomparable, in the sense that it really is doing its own thing. I normally get a kick out of tracing inspirations when I watch a film, but I can't think of any here. It's a modern epic, one that works so well in this day and age, and probably couldn't even exist in another era. The lead performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Chase Infiniti are all outstanding. And it looks great — I'm all for this recent comeback of VistaVision. The car chase sequence over the rolling hills of California will stick with anyone who watches this. What's holding me back from a full five-star rating here is that I know PTA has moved me more in the past. I get that it probably isn't seeking to move audiences, but it's hard to shake that expectation. It's also hard for me to gauge a movie that is very much of our present time, a very sensitive time I might add, as if I need a retrospective look at it to really be confident in its legacy. I felt the same way with Mickey 17 and Eddington earlier this year, but One Battle After Another easily has the highest quality of the three and will likely age better.

Watched at Scotiabank Theatre Vancouver, this time in IMAX. Of course I'm a bit miffed that Vancouver didn't get the 70mm IMAX treatment, but that soon won't be a problem for me at least! Toronto is in my sights.