Is 'One Battle After Another' the Best Movie of the Year?

Cannonball with Wesley Morris

The New York Times

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Arts

4.8 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Paul Thomas Anderson is a very rare figure in Hollywood — he’s widely considered to be one of the very best directors of his generation, but he’s never really had a hit when it comes to making money. One Battle After Another might change that. It’s a big budget action movie with a bankable star. And to Wesley’s relief, that didn’t come with any compromises. Wesley invites The Ringer’s Sean Fennessey to celebrate the merits of Anderson’s films and determine if this is his best.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Wesley Morris and this is Cannonball
0:06.3	Is it possible that I have seen the best movie of 2025?
0:26.1	Paul Thomas Anderson's got a new movie.
0:30.4	It's caught one battle after another, and he is one of my favorite directors.
0:36.6	And sometimes, you know, that's actually kind of scary to me when I love a director and he's got a new movie.
0:37.3	I get nervous.
0:38.3	It's not going to work. And on paper, movie, I get nervous, it's not going to work.
0:42.4	And on paper, you know, this one, it's not a short thing either. The premise is that Leonardo DiCaprio is this washed-up revolutionary,
0:48.2	like a leftist revolutionary.
0:50.5	15 years earlier, he was bombing his way around L.A.
0:53.6	and had a baby with another revolutionary
0:56.7	who's played by Tiana Taylor. There are two names, those two names never thought I was going to
1:02.2	say in a row next to each other. And now, like, she's trying to eat his face. And they get separated.
1:08.4	They're both in hiding. but the government, the military,
1:11.9	repped by a ripped Sean Penn.
1:14.2	They've never stopped looking for them.
1:17.3	This movie, it is very, very good.
1:21.6	Is this the best movie of the year?
1:23.9	Is it instantly Paul Thomas Anderson's best movie?
1:27.5	I'm going to work this out with my pal, Sean Fennacy, who loves himself some PTA too.
1:32.5	Sean hosts a big picture podcast with Amanda Dobbins and is the ringers head of content.
1:37.2	But today, Sean is my PTA co-conspirator and co-celebrant, and I'm pleased to welcome him to Cannonball.
	...

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