One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, September 26, 2025) Movie • Page 41

Let's go PTA

 

and not the last time

 

so true

 

Rewatched this weekend. I think my favorite part is when the bounty hunter scoops up the main intel/radio rebel. The kids outside come in to relay his stock abduction message. Then it cuts to that short tracking shot of the bounty hunter’s car flying down the road.

 

Finally caught this and yeah, it was great, would have been right up there with 28YL for my favorite film of the year. Penn, for better or worse considering how much he sucks as a person, absolutely nailed the chud archetype. Amazing performance that really rode that line between parody and realism. I do think the final scene with Leo and Willa was a bit on the nose, but I understand why the included it. It's a nice way to leave things.

 

I know Threads is like 90% ragebait to get you to open that app, but I keep seeing what I would characterize as very frustrating discourse wrt to the racial politics of this movie

 

I've worked hard enough to get away with that, really would not want to engage with it lol

 

it’s all over twitter lol

 

I don't want to engage, but I'm curious to know what some of the points and discussions are around

 

i'm open to criticism of certain items in the movie (especially from poc) but there's a lot of that i really don't wanna touch with a thousand-foot pole

 

It is all the worst bad faith criticism because their personal favorite movie is not winning the awards. It is one of many reasons the Oscars are so bad for film.

 

Who amongst us didn't feel sympathetic for protagonist Colonel Lockjaw

 

I know she typically has good politics but imagine being 40 and still tweeting like a Main Character on Twitter for engagement. Could never be me

 

Leo's character to me always came off as a poser, he was fascinated by the movement and had a talent to help them but lacked real convictions. Him raising his fist up and yelling "viva revolution!" was cringy in a bare-minimum effort to keep the movement alive. But the last half of the film you're cheering for him to find his daughter.

 

BJG generally has very bad politics imo. lefty as an aesthetic

 

Yeah she turned out to be a grifter.

 

tbh when i saw this the racial politics did feel slightly off for some reason but i'm neither well-informed nor articulate enough to begin to tell you why. it's something worth critiquing for sure, i just haven't seen a video hating on it that explained why i felt it was off; the grievances they bring up feel kinda inconsequential. it's like nothing can be progressive enough for them.

 

The failure of revolution is the point of the film. “One battle after another.” I did wonder at the time how actual leftists felt about the film, feeling frustrated by Leo’s character and how much he mirrored Sean Penn’s (they both admit to fetishizing Black women) but now I realize PTA knew what he was doing.

 

Between the daughter and Benicio the films provides a very generous serving of leftists winning in America. Being a leftist isnt about being perfect its doing your part and helping where you can. Leo is a fuck up who needs help every step of the way and thats what the movie is setting up to shows us.

 

His character seems to be effective when he was active, but he gets lost when he is forced to go into hiding. He is hit with so many new realities at once; Perfidia is gone, he is a new father, and he is no longer allowed to participate in his passion. Just like a lot of old people in retirement, his early retirement leads to a wasted life.

 

did not know this, only knew about the Bernie connection and support for Palestine. Bummer!

 

I don't have anything to add to the political discussion of the film -- I'm sure it's not perfect -- but I would say I was more distracted by the questionable at best men behind and in front of the camera making something that felt so heartfelt and positive to me. But people contain multitudes I guess

 

Are you referring to PTA being questionable at best or a different technical role on this film?