Leonardo DiCaprio continues a bizarre career streak with One Battle After Another, and it’s not being discussed enough. Leonardo DiCaprio and filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson both rose to relative prominence in the film industry around the same time, and though they’ve shared collaborators (including George DiCaprio, Leonardo’s father), this is the first time they’ve worked together. One Battle After Another’s astounding critical acclaim confirms what many had suspected: they’re an excellent match.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays washed-up revolutionary Pat Calhoun (aka “Rocketman,” aka Bob Ferguson) in One Battle After Another, husband to Teyana Taylor’s Perfidia Beverly Hills, and father to Chase Infiniti’s Willa. His character finds himself needing to rise to the occasion when, after years of being in hiding, his estranged wife’s old nemesis and lover, Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), discovers his and his daughter’s location and looks to carry out a grudge.
Leonardo DiCaprio Isn’t The Highlight Of ‘One Battle After Another’
Leonardo DiCaprio’s name and face are plastered all over the marketing for One Battle After Another, a title filled with names that are pure gold for film fans but relatively unfamiliar to general moviegoers. His salary for the film is generally reported as being about $20 million, a significant portion of the movie’s total budget of nearly $140 million. Generally speaking, DiCaprio is worth that much, as he’s likely the reason for much of the film’s box office revenue. However, he’s far from the best part of the movie.
Considering all the factors at play in Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest epic, the chief elements that make One Battle After Another so astounding are: 1) Paul Thomas Anderson’s writing and direction, giving the film a unique cinematic presence that’s both approachable and of a prestige quality, 2) Teyana Taylor’s performance, which, though brief, is lightning-in-a-bottle and has enough juice to rev a nearly three-hour movie into motion in a way that commands constant attention, and 3) Supporting performances from Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro, who deliver some of the most unforgettable work in their prestigious careers as entertainingly idiosyncratic men.
In a world of homogenized, sterile action-star performances, it’s a treat to see Leonardo DiCaprio play a bumbling, drug-addicted fool who’s ridiculously funny but also grounded by profound sensitivity and humanity. That said, he’s not the standout of the film. He’s not bad by any means; he’s certainly not phoning in the performance. DiCaprio is outstanding in One Battle After Another because, in his worst role (which this isn’t), he’s still better than 99% of actors could ever be. It’s just not what one would expect from a Paul Thomas Anderson collaboration.
This isn’t Tom Cruise in Magnolia; it’s not Adam Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love; it’s not Joaquin Phoenix in The Master; and it definitely isn’t Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. It’s not a matter of quality; it’s the simple fact that nothing DiCaprio does in this film is out of the realm of what we know he can do. This is a movie where audiences go in to see Leonardo DiCaprio and walk away going, “DiCaprio was great as always… but Chase Infiniti is going to be a star!“
‘One Battle After Another’ Continues A Post-Oscar Career Trend For Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio has been rightfully sparing in his role selection since winning his Oscar in 2015, with only four movies in the past decade. When breaking them down, this analysis of One Battle After Another is consistent with the rest: he’s been outshone in every production by his co-stars, at least in terms of the media coverage and assessment surrounding the project.
In Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio gave a performance that would be a career-defining moment for anyone else, but Brad Pitt was the focus of the media and Oscar buzz. Don’t Look Up was generally divisive, and none of its cast saw awards buzz even in a weaker pandemic movie year. Killers of the Flower Moon picked up the trend again, with DiCaprio being sensational as Ernest Burkhart and yet, completely eclipsed by the hype surrounding Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro.
Will Leonardo DiCaprio Win Another Oscar This Year?
Though widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time, Leonardo DiCaprio has had a strange career. At the age of 21, he starred in Titanic, the largest movie ever made at the time, which grossed nearly $3 billion at the box office. The unprecedented box office and awards performance allowed DiCaprio to spend much of the next two decades making excellent films with phenomenal performances, but he consistently failed to bring home the actor’s Holy Grail, an Oscar.
This became a meme in the early days of social media, with online content creators and legitimate media outlets poking fun at the wildly successful actor for never taking home the trophy, especially after arguably deserving it for films like Django Unchained, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Aviator.
When Leonardo DiCaprio finally took home his award for The Revenant, audiences were shocked. It’s one of those occasions where, sure, it’s an excellent performance, but it feels like a courtesy trophy, much like DiCaprio’s long-time collaborator Martin Scorsese winning his Oscar for The Departed, or Al Pacino winning for Scent of a Woman. DiCaprio is great in The Revenant, but it’s not the movie that would be highlighted in a career retrospective.
Given the media attention surrounding Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscar history, the 2015 win jumps out as a watershed moment for his career timeline. 10 years later, audiences are seeing the Leonardo DiCaprio who doesn’t need to sleep in a horse carcass to win an Academy Award. This is the version of DiCaprio who has nothing left to prove and is simply delivering outstanding work to great movies. Personally, I love these performances, but I’d also love to see him tackle something in the ilk of Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood or Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, where he transforms into something audiences have never seen before.
At this point, it’s possible that Leonardo DiCaprio could take home his second Oscar in 2026 for One Battle After Another, though Timothée Chalamet appears to be building some momentum for Marty Supreme. Chalamet has been inches away from the award for years now, and the fact that he’s still showing new facets of his capabilities as a performer will undoubtedly contribute to his buzz come awards season. Never count out Leonardo DiCaprio, but winning his second Oscar might require another highly dedicated, game-changing, transformative performance where he’s the sole focal point of the movie.
- Release Date
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September 26, 2025
- Runtime
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162 minutes
- Producers
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Adam Somner