One Battle After Another
I loved Magnolia and There Will Be Blood back when they came out, but I have to admit that Paul Thomas Anderson’s films since then have left me a bit cold.
I’m happy to say that One Battle After Another entertained me more than Phantom Thread or Inherent Vice did. I saw it in IMAX and it was worth it for the close-up performance moments alone, especially by Sean Penn. His character is strange and twitchy and seems deformed somehow, and those quirks really come through when his face fills my entire field of vision.
There’s more action in this than PTA’s usual fare, including a brilliant car chase scene that features rolling desert hills. What starts off as a visual flourish—hypnotizing POV shots that follow the ups and downs of the road—becomes a tactic that a character uses against their pursuer. I would have cheered out loud if I were the type of person to do that.
What I’m struggling with, though, is the politics of the movie. The film depicts a conflict between characters from the extremes of the political spectrum. On one side is a terrorist group, committing violent crimes in the name of immigrant rights, and against the capitalist establishment. On the other side is a secretive, Santa-worshipping white supremacist club, whose members are in positions of high power and who do not shy away from an assassination or two. Both are shown as being ridiculous, and as far as I know, neither actually exist in real life. The US is a polarized country, and I feel like this movie gives fuel for both sides to say, “This is why they are to be feared.” The world of the movie feels just real enough that it filled me with dread about the future of American society. Which I guess was the point.
