Revolutions and zany bombast mix together in Anderson’s stick of cinematic dynamite
Well-crafted films can accomplish two objectives: entertain audiences and support an artist’s viewpoint (the “message” of the film, if you will). Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood; Phantom Thread; Licorice Pizza) has established himself as one of the finest filmmakers working today, capable of rewarding audiences and deep thinkers alike. Even though his films haven’t been box office juggernauts, they are strongly respected within the filmmaking and film-loving communities. Anderson’s tenth feature film, One Battle After Another, is his most mainstream film, a potential box office hit and a crowd pleaser, but also his most politically-minded. One Battle After Another is a wild character-driven thriller with an unassailable comic sensibility. The film also presents a poignant critique on the nation’s current sociopolitical climate. Anderson’s sense of action, hijinks, and thematic storytelling are honed to a sharp, surrealist point in One Battle After Another, thus creating a richly rewarding cinematic triumph.
Anderson loosely based One Battle After Another on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland. In the film, “Ghetto Pat” (Leonardo DiCaprio) and “Perfidia Beverly Hills” (Teyana Taylor), lovers and members of the French 75, a radical revolutionary group, contribute to a handful of staged hits against U.S. government facilities before they are systematically pursued and forced into hiding by Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). Sixteen years later, Ghetto Pat is living off-the-grid under the pseudonym Bob Ferguson with his daughter, Willa. Bob maintains a perpetually stoned, paranoid state, but when their whereabouts reappear on Lockjaw’s radar and Willa is taken, Bob must spring back into action with help from his former French 75 comrades and Willa’s karate teacher, sensei Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio Del Toro).
Anderson has once again elicited top-tier performances from his cast. You wouldn’t guess that Infinity is making her film debut, since she infuses Willa with a natural sense of rebellious frustration and fear. Taylor is also phenomenal as a spirited but conflicted revolutionary. However, the trio of stars – DiCaprio, Del Toro, and Penn – are operating at another level. Their performances run the characterization gamut, from an insecure military menace (Penn) and a charmingly courageous sensei (Del Toro) to an emotionally paranoid stoner father (DiCaprio). Anderson and director of photography Michael Bauman, who worked together on Anderson’s previous film Licorice Pizza, favor close-ups whenever the story allows, enhancing the withered faces and vibrantly focused eyes of the actors. This stylistic choice adds to the emotional stakes at the film’s core, and balances well against the grand-scaled action and gorgeously shot chase sequences.
Peel back the layers of One Battle After Another’s spectacle, thrilling pace (frequent Anderson collaborator Jonny Greenwood provides the musical score, a heart-pounding off-kilter mesh of piano strikes), and black comedy and you’re still left with a thematically rich, intriguingly timely story of parental legacy and revolutionary unity. In many ways, Anderson’s film explores the precarious gap between older and younger generations, and specifically, the gradual malaise each group can feel with extended inaction. Each generation has a battle to wage against systematic oppression and injustice – the cyclical nature of protests/revolution is captured in the film’s title. However, One Battle After Another also satirizes the way modern factions of radical thinkers can overcomplicate scenarios by prioritizing self-image and idealist procedures over taking real action. Bob Ferguson/Ghetto Pat is a father who faces an uphill battle when he tries to infuse his revolutionary methodology into his daughter, but he doesn’t realize that times have changed and each generation needs to fight back in their own way. One Battle After Another argues that a parent’s best option is to nourish their children’s sense of freedom and activism. The film also argues that passing the baton from generation to generation isn’t our only important responsibility – we also need to unify. Cooperation and unification between activist, radical, and humanitarian groups is the best way to bring about real change.
One Battle After Another is a masterpiece. The film is a complex, entertaining social commentary that functions as a zany thriller and a sociopolitical statement. It is rare to have a filmmaker whose (mostly quadrennial) releases are so highly anticipated, they become eventized, but even more rare if that filmmaker consistently delivers on the hype. Anderson is one of these rarities. The stakes couldn’t be any higher, because One Battle After Another is Anderson’s largest film yet – biggest budget, biggest production scale, and Warner Bros. has been executing on a wide-reaching marketing campaign for the film. The tremendous buzz around One Battle After Another places Anderson’s previous film in a new light. Licorice Pizza, the small-scale, personal ode to growing up in the San Fernando Valley, wasn’t a sign of a filmmaker’s diminishing grandeur, but rather an artist’s yet unexplored sentimentality. Nonetheless, One Battle After Another is a masterful flex, and should be rewarded by being seen in the biggest theater available. Also, I’m calling it now – like Christopher Nolan’s night at the Oscars two years ago, when we get to March 15th 2026, it’s going to be Anderson’s night.
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One Battle After Another opens in theaters on Friday, September 26th.
