By Mark Fields
Big, Gutsy Dramedy Shows the Reawakening of a Buffoonish Revolutionary
One Battle After Another is a bold, startling film about revolution, obsession, freedom, and ultimately familial devotion. The latest feature from provocateur filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson has a lot to say, and it deftly avoid simple answers or pat solutions. And, the movie presents these big ideas with a strange, even challenging blend of tense drama and broad comedy that draws in the audience even as they (at least me) struggle with the jarring shifts in tone. It is a film that demands attention, and probably repeat viewings to fully absorb.
Very loosely based on – rather inspired by – Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, One Battle After Another tells the story of a band of contemporary American revolutionaries, the French 75, both during their days of extremely uncivil disobedience and also fifteen years later as they cope with the aftermath of their criminal anti-government activity. The movie focuses on Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti), stuck in hiding in northern California. Bob is raising Willa as a single father after her mother and his paramour, Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) ratted out their rebel group and disappeared. A nemesis from Bob’s past, Colonel Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), is now obsessively tracking down Bob and Willa for reasons that are more personal than official.
This is just the core of a complex and engrossing plot that also touches on immigration control, covert right-wing vigilantes, and paramilitary overreach. One Battle After Another covers a lot of ground in its epic 161 minutes. It also features inspired performances by DiCaprio, Taylor, Penn, and newcomer Infiniti, as well as terrific supporting work from Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, and Tony Goodwin.
The movie, shot in Vistavision and best watched in Imax, is also vividly photographed by Michael Bauman and intensely scored by Jonny Greenwood. But the bulk of the credit goes to writer/director Anderson and his feverish vision for One Battle After Another.
There is a cult of admiring filmgoers that swoon over Anderson. Admittedly, he has accumulated an impressive cinematic resume over the years – as recently as Licorice Pizza (2021) and charting back to Boogie Nights (1997). And, he is a gifted collaborator with actors, many of whom have earned Academy Award nominations (he himself has 11 Oscar noms for best writing, directing, and picture).
Many of his acclaimed movies, which also include The Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood, and Magnolia, have been extremely well-crafted in my opinion but yet have also left me cold. There is often a detachment in Anderson’s work, both in the characters and in his approach to them, that has always disappointed me. I often admire his films rather than love them.
Not so with One Battle After Another. Anderson’s intimate use of the camera, paired with his sharp writing, makes you care profoundly about these characters in spite of, or maybe because of, their weaknesses and quirks. And the director’s thoughts on freedom and repression, action and inaction, obsession and genuine care are both timely and profound.
In the immediate aftermath of viewing this film, I was perplexed and slightly overwhelmed by its boldness, intensity, and yes, eccentricity. As I have reflected on it in the days since, I have come to a deeper appreciation of the audacity of Anderson’s vision here. One Battle After Another is one of the best – and may be even most important — films of the year.
Official Trailer
