As a big fan of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, I was very excited to get into the theater and buckle in for the nearly three-hour runtime of “One Battle After Another.” However, after seeing the film I have to say it left me trying to find one reason after another to defend it being a good film…and here’s the hot take, it wasn’t.
Anderson, famous for films like “Boogie Nights,” “Inherent Vice,” “Punch Drunk Love,” “Magnolia” and “Licorice Pizza” recently debuted his tenth movie “One Battle After Another” on Sept 26. The film is an adaptation of 1990 novel “Vineland” by Thomas Pynchon, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti.
Aside from the star-studded cast and the sound track, the entirety of the film felt contrived. Anderson is known for taking the not so favorable sides of society and highlighting them, creating raw and real story lines that typically intersect and intertwine in ways you don’t always see coming. In this film, however, it felt forced, picking politically charged topics to mirror the current divide in America in the most extreme ways.
The film follows DiCaprio’s character Bob, a washed-up ex-radical and his daughter Willa (played by Infiniti) through a manhunt led by Penn’s character Sergeant Lockjaw, because of choices made by Willa’s mother Perfidia (played by Taylor.) The movie starts with flashbacks of Perfidia and Bob fighting for immigration rights in an underground paramilitary group, but shifts quickly to the future brushing past and losing the social justice themes pivoting into an action packed wild goose chase.
It didn’t feel empowering or like it had a fresh take, but instead used the extremities to tell a superfluous story. It attempted to tell a similar story to the film “Eddington” that was released earlier this year. Though it was not nearly as successful in giving a new perspective on a prevalent and current issue. “Eddington” focused on Corona Virus and its impact on all members of society, no matter your social or economic standing. Balancing delicate perspectives and remaining impartial on its coverage as a film capturing the larger picture.
I worry this was a case of loving the director so much that critics put the film on a pedestal when other films have highlighted these same subjects in a unique light, with original takes. It will be interesting to see how it ages in a few weeks as more and more fans of Anderson’s work watch.
The only redeeming factors are the phenomenal acting and score. Dicaprio gave us exactly what the trailer promised, a lovable Gen X-coded father figure, serving as a comic relief to an otherwise tense, violent and action packed film. For Infiniti, this marks her first big screen debut, known only for her acting in the Apple TV show “Presumed Innocent.” Her scenes with Penn really showed her range as a young actress and I am really excited to see her in more films in the future.
Anderson is known for his scores, and this movie is no exception. Working for the sixth time with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, the soundtrack also features Steely Dan, the Jackson 5, Ella Fitzgerald and Tom Petty. Without the music this film would have been a total flop. It kept the energy up, which was needed for such a long film, enhanced the tension in suspenseful scenes and added levity when needed to keep the emotions balanced. I just wish the plot lived up to how stellar the backtracking was.
If you are a fan of Anderson, then give it a watch from the comfort of your home with maybe another one of his films ready to toss on afterward. It’ll be a skip for me in the future, a forgotten film in his repertoire. Breaking our spicy streak, this film earns a two on the spicy scale.