Movie Review: Echos of Victor Hugo in ‘One Battle After Another’

When I went into Paul Thomas Anderson’s highly anticipated political epic One Battle After Another this past weekend, I figured it would be somewhat along the lines of his past film, the absurdist and irreverent Inherent Vice (2014). The former is based on a 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon and the latter is roughly inspired by another novel by the author, Vineland (1990).

But what I got felt more like a modernized interpretation of Victor Hugo’s 1831 classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, to the point where I’m a little surprised more people aren’t also seeing the parallels.

In the late 2000s, a revolutionary known as Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) leads a radical, extremist group called The French 75. In between secretly releasing immigrants from detention centers and planting bombs in various locations, Perfidia has a romantic relationship with her fellow F75 member Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a short, secret fling with Col. Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), who is a white supremacist obsessed with Perfidia.

When things unexpectedly go haywire during a bank bust, Perfidia instantly goes MIA and Pat is left to raise their newborn daughter, Charlene. 16 years later, Charlene, now Willa Ferguson (Chase Infiniti), is kidnapped by Lockjaw’s team, with a lone, junkie ridden Pat, now Bob, alone to rescue her.

Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Tony Goldwyn, Alana Haim and Kevin Tighe make up some of the supporting cast of One Battle After Another, and the movie features a score by frequent Anderson collaborator Jonny Greenwood. Anderson’s new movie is currently receiving overwhelming praise, and while it hasn’t jumped to the top of my favorite films of 2025 so far, I’m a longtime PTA fan and agree with many of the positive reactions.

The writer-director surrounds himself with performers and artists as talented as he is and it almost always pays off, with One Battle the most recent example of such. Infiniti is a revelation opposite all the veteran actors, and I was a bit bummed to see Haim exit after the first act since she was the highlight of Anderson’s previous picture, Licorice Pizza (2021).

But really, I’m most taken by how Hugo-esque the general story of One Battle After Another is. Lockjaw is a clear modern equivalent of Claude Frollo, both Perfidia and Willa are an amalgamation of Esmeralda, and Bob/Pat is our burnout-esque Quasimodo. I wasn’t expecting one of my favorite filmmakers’ movies to remind me of a famous French book, but if there was ever a time for either’s exposure, it’s probably now.