One Battle After Another: A Timely Look At A Revolution
One Battle After Another is coming to theatres at the best and worst time possible - and it's one of directors Paul Thomas Anderson's best films to date
Before getting into the weeds of this review - I have to be upfront about where I land politically. If you disagree with me that’s fine, but there’s no way to beat around the bush when talking about this film. I believe the country is heading in a very dangerous place and I absolutely hate our current leadership and administration. The Trump Administration has pulled us all apart and politicized our differences and profited on them - all while hurting the working class and minorities. I also believe in peaceful resistance, the principals of a leader like Martin Luther King Jr. I believe in leading with love and building bridges, something that I’ve been taught my whole life through my faith. Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film One Battle After Another is coming out at the exact right time - which is why it’s discourse might happen for the exact wrong reasons. The film star’s Leonardo DiCaprio as revolutionary Bob Ferguson, as his resistance group The French 75 in the opening scene infiltrate a ICE Detention center to free the immigrants being held hostage at the facility, guns a-blazing. Already from the opening shot of the film - the film makes it’s point clear. The revolutionaries advocating change, even with gunfire - are the heroes of this story. This film is loosely based on a book written by Thomas Pynchon called Vineland, a book that was written during the Regan Administration, where a lot of the horrors happening in the country weren’t entirely as high profile as they are now but were still just as horrific. One Battle After Another comes out at a time where there are a number of people who have unjustly villainized immigrants. I think even just ten years ago, the public opinion would be easily that the neo-nazi groups featured in this film were overtly evil and every person deserved equal rights, but times are changing in a jarring political landscape.
This is why One Battle After Another is an all timer of a movie, one I think will be featured in history books for years to come. To release this film right now is a daring move, especially in a time where Republicans tried to get Jimmy Kimmel off the air for saying stuff way less salacious than this movie. I will say myself, as someone who personally leans to the left politically even found aspects of the first act of this movie uncomfortable. Like I wrote before, I am someone who believes in peaceful resistance, something this movie isn’t making the case for. The characters we follow are doing a hostile resistance, blowing up buildings and holding people hostage to see systemic change. However, as a film viewer, I don’t want to always agree with the actions of my protagonists. That would be boring, I want to have my own ideas challenged. This was done perfectly a few months ago with the film Eddington, who’s protagonist was a MAGA coded sheriff.
One Battle After Another however, shows the pros and cons of the mindset of these revolutionaries and a few awful choices made by the most vocal member of the group played terrifically by Teyana Taylor is what sets off the major conflict of the film. If it wasn’t for her taking things too far for the group and compromising her own moral integrity (trying to avoid spoilers - apologies for the vagueness) the major conflict of this film could have been promptly avoided. The film comes into its own when the major characters in it become Leonardo DiCaprio and his daughter played by Chase Infiniti- who in my opinion steals the entire movie. When the film becomes about the two of the running away from the clutches of the neo-nazi white supremicist with his own motivations to kill them both, played by Sean Penn in a career best performance is when the film finds it’s footing and becomes one of the most visceral, action packed and entertaining movies I’ve seen in recent memory.
Paul Thomas Anderson is one of my favorite directors of all time, his opus There Will Be Blood I cite as one of the films that made me fall in love with the medium. His filmography is so dense with such great films that most everyone has a different favorite film of his. It’s not widely agreed upon what his best film is. I believe with the nature of this film, this is one that is gonna be an introduction to several people getting into film. One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson’s most accessible film to date. Which is a nice change of pace. As much as I admire his film Inherent Vice and adore his last film Licorice Pizza- those are fun hangout films made for a certain audience that will gravitate towards them. One Battle After Another is not as esoteric as anything else he’s ever made. This film is broadly an action comedy- that is tackling a lot of very serious and heavy topics with it. The film never feels too heavy though, making this a really entertaining time at the movies. The two hour and forty minute runtime to me felt like ninety minutes. I don’t there there’s anyone else making movies right now who paces things better than PTA, who continues to make large sprawling movies where every single scene feels essential.
It is weird that this film ends up playing out as a dark comedy, but I believe it is the right way to approach a lot of this subject matter. It has been said that the start of an authoritarian takeover starts with the censorship with comedians (something we are seeing play out in real time sadly) because comedy can bring out deep truths of individuals and their intentions. Making fun of how ridiculous these white nationalists look and sound is a wake up call to make us all realize how ridiculous the current times we are living in are. I cannot stress enough that these jarring tonal shifts are executed so well not just because of Paul Thomas Anderson’s perfect screenplay and immaculate directing, but the performances as well. This might be my favorite Leonardo DiCaprio character yet. Bob is a lovable washed up revolutionary stumbling along looking for his daughter- he gives off a lot of the vibes that The Dude does in The Big Lebowski. However, there is more of a moral center to his character that makes him more compelling to watch on screen in my opinion. Even in his vulgar rants and his ineptitude to adapt to the lingo of the 21st century, I was rooting for him because I knew he was a well meaning father before anything else. I would say in that regard he reminds me a bit of Homer Simpson. His daughter in the film is terrific as well, and acts as the moral center of the film who is trying to figure out her place in the universe. Their connection to one another is what gives the film an emotional core and makes the film feel incredibly poignant even outside everything it’s saying about our political landscape.
The film is a tour de force when it comes to direction. Paul Thomas Anderson demands your attention in every single scene. This film is entirely shot through VistaVision, and it’s so crisp in execution. I wish I lived closer to a VistaVision screening, because I cannot believe how visceral this film was watching it on a traditional movie screen. I would say to seek this movie out in the biggest and loudest format you can because it is a spectacle. The car chases in the film are filmed in a way I’ve never seen before. The points of views throughout these action set pieces had my mouth agape. It’s the best action set pieces I’ve seen since George Miller’s Mad Max Fury Road and elicited the same sense of awe from me. As someone who has studied film, made films and sees over a hundred films in theatres a year, it’s not very often where I have no idea how a film scene is made but this movie has sequences where I had no idea how they pulled it off. The car wrecks in this film felt so real that I would wince when they happened like I was waiting for a jump scare in a horror movie. It’s absolutely enthralling filmmaking, everything Paul Thomas Anderson has been building to his entire career.
This film is a perfect balancing act. It has sublime action set pieces, hilarious jokes, harrowing emotional beats and a timely message about heritage, activism and your role in making the world a better place. One Battle After Another is everything I want to see in the current landscape of film, and I have no real criticisms of it. I think Paul Thomas Anderson has made a film for the ages here, it’s one of his best films to date and I believe one of the best films of the decade so far.
