One Battle After Another review
By Joel Humphries · Watched 09.28.25
★★★ 3 / 5
Spoiler-free review
One Battle After Another earns its title through a relentless sequence of confrontations, arrests, disastrous decisions, raids and chases. Beneath that motion, the film appears to contrast French 75’s narcissistic revolutionary performance with a more useful, community-driven activism, but the idea never resolves clearly—especially when the next generation seems ready to repeat the inherited cycle without reflection. The white supremacists are drawn so farcically that they weaken the danger they should embody. There is always another battle to watch; I am less convinced the movie understands what any of them ultimately changes.
Full review — contains spoilers
Minor spoilers…
Title fits. I clocked at least eight battles. The bank robbery, the crew getting arrested, the school dance, the fuckery with him and the sensei and the ill considered parkour, the showdown at the Nunnery, the native bounty hunter versus the white supremacist compound, lockjaw versus the evil Christmas guy, and then the car chase... might be missing one or two.
Edited to add additional thoughts from another forum:
The film tries to contrast the narcissistic nature of French 75’s activism revolutionary activism with Benicio’s more community-driven activism which is portrayed as more effective, but I’m not sure that message is delivered clearly by the end, especially with Willa seeming to jump right back into her parent’s legacy without a lot of reflection. Also the white supremacist characters are so farcical in this that their presence undermines the stakes, making the underlying conflict less compelling, IMO.