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Leonardo DiCaprio Is a Lefty Activist in ‘One Battle After Another’ Trailer

Viva la revolución!

Leonardo DiCaprio is Donald Trump’s worst nightmare in One Battle After Another.

The first full trailer dropped for One Battle After Another, a black comedy about Bob Ferguson (DiCaprio), a civil rights activist who joins a revolutionary group to fight against a white supremacist and fascist government.

Despite his political aims, Bob is somewhat of a loser. His mother-in-law despises him, his comrades want to get rid of him, and he wanders about town in a plaid bathrobe and a sad beanie. But when Bob’s daughter gets kidnapped by an old foe, he must do everything in his power to get her back, no matter the cost.

“You know what will free your a**?” the group’s sensei (Benicio del Toro) asks Bob in the trailer, while they speed down a highway in a janky red car.

“What?” Bob asks.

“No fear,” the sensei declares, before yelling: “Go!”

Then, the sensei shoves Bob out of the moving car, driving away before he can get back into it.

Written and produced by Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another stars DiCaprio alongside a star-studded cast: Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Chase Infiniti, Alana Haim, Teyana Taylor, and del Toro. This marks Anderson’s first film since Licorice Pizza (2021), and his fifth and final collaboration with the late assistant director Adam Somner.

Anderson loosely based the film on Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, a 1977 novel about a group of washed-up radicals in their 60s living in California. Described as “part daytime drama” and “part political thriller,” the novel depicts an America hurtling towards a concerning future.

Set to release in theaters on Sep. 26, One Battle After Another promises to be funny, dark, and, most importantly, timely.

Clare DonaldsonEditorial Intern

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