Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the greatest actors of his generation, who collaborated with the great Steven Spielberg on Catch Me If You Can in 2002. DiCaprio is perhaps better known for his many collaborations with Martin Scorsese, including The Aviator (2005) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2014), both of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.

Ever since starring in James Cameron’s тιтanic (1997), DiCaprio has collaborated with several great directors, including Christopher Nolan on Inception (2010) and Quentin Tarantino on Django Unchained (2012) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), the latter earning him another Oscar nod for Best Actor. However, it was The Revenant (2015), directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, that finally earned him the highly coveted award.

DiCaprio’s next movie unites him with yet another acclaimed director, one he’s never worked with before, and it’s already earning high praise from one of the greats, Steven Spielberg.

Steven Spielberg Shares A Glowing Review For One Battle After Another

Steven Spielberg shares a glowing review for One Battle After Another. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, the upcoming film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as an ex-revolutionary who, after their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, must reunite with his fellow former revolutionaries to rescue his daughter.

The cast also includes two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn (Mystic River, Milk), Oscar winner Benicio del Toro (Traffic), Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza), The Wire‘s Wood Harris, Shayna McHayle, Starletta DuPois, D.W. Moffett, and Paul Grimstad.

Following its Los Angeles premiere on September 8, Spielberg shared a glowing review for One Battle After Another during a conversation with Paul Thomas Anderson (via The Film Stage). Spielberg describes it as action-packed, saying that its first hour contains more action than all of Anderson’s other films combined. He also admires the movie’s bizarre yet relevant themes, saying they are timelier now than when Anderson finished the screenplay.

Notably, Spielberg compared One Battle After Another to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, highlighting its blend of absurdist comedy and reflection on today’s realities. He emphasizes how the film balances this satire with seriousness, and provides laughter as a necessary release. For him, it’s both entertaining and unsettling, provoking nervous laughter amid the deeply resonant social commentary. Read Spielberg’s full review below:

What an insane movie, oh my God. 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 ᴀssembled your cast and crew and began production. What was it about the Thomas Pynchon book that first sort of set you off?

I have not seen a movie that is so tonally a relative to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. 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. So Kubrick used armageddon as a way to tell his story, to make his statement. And there’s something that gets us on the same edge of that kind of absurdist feeling, a tone, that you take it both very seriously, but you’re praying for some kind of relief, some kind of a trigger to laugh. I nervously laugh all the way through Dr. Strangelove, and, 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.

What Steven Spielberg’s Review Means For One Battle After Another

Steven Spielberg’s review suggests that One Battle After Another is unlike any other Paul Thomas Anderson movie, primarily because of its action. Spielberg says the first hour contains more action than all of Anderson’s other films combined, highlighting an unexpected shift in the director’s style that makes the film feel urgent and chaotic compared to his usual restraint.

By comparing it to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, Spielberg suggests that One Battle After Another blends satire with absurdist comedy. He admits to laughing nervously throughout, not because the events are lighthearted, but because they reflect unsettling truths about modern society. Spielberg suggests that One Battle After Another is, most of all, a mirror held up to modern society.