‘One Battle After Another’ First Reactions: Steven Spielberg Praises PTA and DiCaprio’s ‘Incredible’ New Movie as Press Call It One of the Year’s Best

The first rave reactions for Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio‘s “One Battle After Another” are led by none other than Steven Spielberg, who praised the movie while moderating a Q&A with Anderson at the Director’s Guild of America theater in Los Angeles.

“What an insane movie, oh my God,” Spielberg said (via The Film Stage). “There is more action in the first hour of this than every other film you’ve ever directed put together. Everything, it is really incredible. This is such a concoction of things that are so bizarre and at the same time so relevant, that I think have become increasingly more relevant than perhaps even when you finished the screenplay and assembled your cast and crew and began production.”

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Loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland,” “One Battle After Another” casts DiCaprio as a washed-up revolutionary who is forced to save his teenage daughter when an enemy from his past reappears. The supporting cast includes Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti in her film debut.

“I have not seen a movie that is so tonally a relative to Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Dr. Strangelove,'” Spielberg added in his praise. “This brings a kind of absurdist comedy, taken very seriously, because it’s so much a reflection of what’s happening today, every day, throughout this country. But it takes it to a point where you want to laugh, because if you don’t laugh, you’re going to start screaming, ‘This is too real.’ And so you got that outlet… more than nervously, I had a great time laughing all the way through this. But it’s interesting where you laugh here, where you allow us to laugh, and then when you shut it down.”

On social media platforms, several members of the film press hailed “One Battle After Another” as one of the standout films of 2025. Men’s Health writer Evan Romano called it “my #1 movie of the year,” while film critic and podcast host Brett Arnold similarly wrote it’s “my fav of the year.”

“I laughed out loud throughout, it’s probably Anderson’s funniest movie, and by the end I was so deeply moved I was crying,” Arnold added. “Sean Penn will win an incredibly well-deserved Oscar. And the action! My god. I haven’t stopped thinking about the car chase and what the camera does.”

Slash Film editor and critic Chris Evangelista echoed the praise, deeming the film “the modern American nightmare in VistaVision.”

He wrote on X, “‘One Battle After Another’ finds PTA capturing our current hellish landscape in a darkly funny film loaded with thrilling car chases, deafening shootouts, and absurdism. Shocking but familiar images abound. One of the best of the year!”

Critic and “Beyond The Trailer” host Grace Randolph had mixed feelings about the film at first, but as the film progressed, she started to have second thoughts.

“At first I hated it & thought it was ridiculous,” she wrote on X. “But…the more I think about it, the more I think it might have something to say. Benicio Del Toro is having QUITE the year, might have to nominate him for Best Supporting Critics Choice.”

Critic Edward Douglas shouted out both DiCaprio and Penn on X, writing that they are the two balanced sides of the good vs. evil struggle.

“Penn gives a standout, absolutely staggering performance as the film’s main antagonist in ‘One Battle After Another’, allowing Leo to handle most of the comic lifting,” he wrote. “This will get a lot of people talking for sure.”

New York Times pop culture reporter Kyle Buchanan deemed the film an Oscar frontrunner on X, claiming it could be the film to earn Anderson his first best director honor.

“The fall fests didn’t move the Oscar needle much, but ‘One Battle After Another’ certainly will,” he wrote. “Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest could be nominated across the board (Sean Penn & Teyana Taylor are standouts) and finally nab PTA the top Oscar. Now, to see if Warner Bros can open it…”

“One Battle After Another” opens in theaters Sept. 26 from Warner Bros.

Check out more first reactions below.