I don’t think I have the ability to write something totally cogent or insightful about One Battle After Another. I’d consider Paul Thomas Anderson my favourite director and all I could think coming out of the theatre was (a) he’s done it again and (b) I’m seeing this three more times in theatre.

 

If you’ve spent a minute online reading or just seeing the ratings of One Battle After Another you’ll notice PTA’s getting the highest praise he’s gotten since There Will Be Blood. The reason being, while I love almost all his films most of them have an aspect or two that can alienate an audience - Inherent Vice’s labyrinthian plot, Punch-Drunk Love’s bottled anxiety, Phantom Thread’s off putting dictator-esque artist - OBAA, on the other hand, has nothing for your less film-savvy family members to sneer at. It is a complete artistic symphony. 

 

I don’t want to try and break the film down to its elements or get into the plot, you can’t talk about how great Sean Penn or Leonardo DiCaprio’s performances are without mention of Colleen Atwood’s costume design or Andrew Max Cahn’s art direction or Michael Bauman’s cinematography or Johnny Greenwood’s score or Andy Jurgensen’s editing and so on. You have to step back and praise the orchestra’s conductor.

 

The best indicator of great direction is tone control. Over the 2 hours and 40 minutes (that only feels like 2 hours) you are at PTA’s will; if you’re supposed to be on edge, you’re on edge; if you’re supposed to be amped, you’re amped; and if you’re supposed to feel hopeless, you feel hopeless. The director instinctually knows when the right time to cut away from Bob (DiCaprio) and Sensei (Benecio Del Toro stealing the show for an hour) breaking out of a hospital to Lockjaw (Penn maybe at his best ever here) testing Willa’s (Chase Infinity) DNA without losing any momentum. That goes too for when he cuts out all sound or when he ramps up the score just the right amount or when he chooses to mesmerise the audience with some rhythmic slopes amidst an adrenaline fueled chase sequence (I’d like to call this chase sequence a standout of the film but there’s too many standouts for this one jaw dropping sequence to be declared as so).

 

Not only is OBAA a taut thriller, it is simultaneously hysterical - Anderson takes a nefarious group of white supremacists and rightfully paints them as lizards doing their best humanoid impression. Spielberg himself compared this aspect to Dr. Strangelove - an astute observation because while you are laughing at the Patagonia adorned cunts there is a glimmer of reality and humanity in them that makes their ideology all the scarier. What an apt time to release this too as white supremacists leading the world is as close to us as nuclear armageddon was in the 60s. Not that any of those inbred “protestors” would ever watch this film but if they did it’d be their best chance of realising how asinine their beliefs are.

 

This kind of film is rare. Watching it is rewarding, harrowing and exhilarating. I’d implore anyone and everyone to find the time, get a small combo (but don’t drink all the Pepsi Max as you’re guaranteed to be so glued to the screen that you’ll give yourself a UTI from holding your piss in) and look out for me most likely watching it a fifth or sixth time.