SPOILER WARNING FOR ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Aside from Stanley Kubrick, Paul Thomas Anderson is my favorite director. And, up until I saw One Battle After Another (which we gave a five-star review), I thought I had his number.
I’ve loved every PTA film (especially Licorice Pizza, which I had to warm up to, but now adore), I really didn’t know what I thought of One Battle After Another while I was watching it. That’s because this movie is an action thriller, and PTA does not do action thrillers.
Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood. Hell, he even did it in his very first film, Hard Eight, which some might view as a thriller, but I would categorize it more as a crime drama. So, tension for PTA is nothing new.
However, when I’ve always thought about PTA’s past flicks, tension was never the first word that came to mind. Wry-humored? Sure. Nostalgic? In many ways. Serious? You betcha! But suspenseful? No, that’s not a word that I would associate with PTA. Hitchcock? Of course, as that was his bread and butter. But PTA was not that kind of director.
That is, of course, not until One Battle After Another, since this movie is suspenseful (and tense!) as all hell. The story mostly concerns a drugged-out, middle-aged man named Bob Ferguson (Or “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun) (DiCaprio) who spent a lot of his youth making explosives and aiding a left-wing revolutionary group called French 75.
He fell in love with one of its members, named Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyona Taylor), and eventually had a child with her (or so he thinks). As a dad myself, I can relate to losing all of the fire in your belly once you have children, since that’s exactly what happened to Ferguson: He had a kid, and settled down.
Which is where the tension comes in, since a corrupt military man named Col. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) has suspicions that Ferguson’s child, Willa (Played by an amazing Chase Infiniti) might actually…well, I’ll just leave it there, but what I will say is that Lockjaw disrupts Ferguson’s whole existence. And, Ferguson, whose mind isn’t what it used to be from years of drug abuse, needs to protect his daughter at all costs, and those moments are really riveting!
if you want to get into the director’s work). The characters just didn’t work for me, and I had a hard time determining who I should root for or detest.
Benicio del Toro is certainly on the “good” team. He plays Willa’s sensei, Sergio St. Carlos. HE’s also a neighborhood leader who looks out for the people in his community. So, yes. A class act.
Willa is also on the good side, as she wants no involvement in the drama that comes her way. The rest of the “good characters” is where things get interesting, as I don’t necessarily think the members of the French 75 are “good.”
They’re destructive, and when it all comes down to it, they’re no better than the disillusioned men in Fight Club (which you should definitely rewatch). It’s in this way that PTA can create compelling heroes and villains in tense situations, which is great. He should do it more often.
the upcoming horror movies coming out rather than, like, you know, news about tariffs, immigration, or government shutdowns. That said, “real” news is important, and if I’m going to have to absorb it, I’d prefer to do it in the form of a movie rather than on some dedicated TV network.
And, OBAA tackles many real-world issues, such as sanctuary cities. The movie takes an obvious side, but it presents it in a way that feels relevant to the plot (and feels thrilling at the same time).
Or, what about white nationalism? PTA works this into his action scenes in fascinating, exciting ways. All of these surprised me since I didn’t know PTA had it in him to make a semi-political action thriller, but now that I know he does, I want more of it!
So, if you’re reading this, PTA, please make another action thriller! You’re really good at it!