Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another”, loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland”, follows a group of revolutionaries known as the French 75.
Sixteen years ago, the group was forced to flee and hide in the shadows when one of them ratted them out to the authorities. Some members were caught and killed, while the others were forced to change identities.
In the present day, one of the group’s leading members, now known as Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), will have to confront past demons when the military forces’ commanding officer, Colonel Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), kidnaps her daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti).
Reading the repressive implications of today’s political climate towards the marginalized in several parts of the world, “One Battle After Another” has never felt more urgent. It’s an action film that is primarily a personal quest between a father and his estranged daughter, carefully weaving into a story of generations, of how battles will always continue to be fought, regardless of how they are concluded. Anderson examines Bob and Willa’s battles as a byproduct of selfishness and how love and forgiveness could be the saving grace to put an end to it.
“One Battle After Another” is a skillfully directed movie that not only reinforces Anderson as one of the best filmmakers working today but also argues that the most personal is the most political. Paul Thomas Anderson’s life into fatherhood may have affected how he shaped this film in the same way that his marriage turns “Phantom Thread” into one of the vilest yet delicate films about relationships. An action-heavy film with a recognizable ensemble of actors could undoubtedly make this Anderson’s most accessible work, but it’s still uniquely different from his past titles. It’s a masterpiece.
“One Battle After Another” is now showing in cinemas.
Featured images from Warner Bros. Pictures.
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