But there are other, rarer occasions when a long-evolving project gets exactly the time in the oven that it needed. Another reason Anderson did well to wait until 2025 to make One Battle After Another is that it’s hard to imagine a movie more attuned to this political moment. In the process, she encounters a higher-ranking figure than she expected: the sadistic and fervently racist Col. Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn). AdvertisementAdvertisementLike so many things in this mysterious yet gloriously entertaining movie, the title One Battle After Another poses an enigma that it leaves the audience to solve. Does Anderson mean to say that revolutionary violence is an inexhaustible cycle, doomed to spin in place without ever moving us forward?