The revolution will be theatricized. Here it is. Paul Thomas Anderson’s magnum opus of radical political engagement, that is not just a showcase of good praxis (it’s not really this at all), but is a barn-burning generational story of radical thought passed on, aged out of or aged into, and what happens along the way.
Paul Thomas Anderson is built different, in a way that allows him to be exactly the right purveyor for the deeply complex, hard to grasp novels of Thomas Pynchon. Saying One Battle After Another is just an adaptation of Pynchon’s Vineland, though, is both exactly right and a minimization of what it’s doing.
In One Battle’s conversion of Vineland’s 1984 era of Reagan politics and social retreat from progressive virtue, Anderson has remapped and reframed the concepts and characters completely, moving them into a fight against White Nationalism and Trumpism (they’re the same thing).
To make a movie this loaded at this budget, is to stake a claim. One Battle is going to bleed money and it doesn’t matter. It’s also going to be relevant in a decade and a decade after that, every time we revert to conservative values, and turn away from social causes, the movie will serve as a beacon for a certain kind of American filmmaking.
This is a new consciousness, so say the characters in the movie. Their rebellion, against the white supremacy of The Christmas Adventurers Club pits the French 75 against such timely adversaries, and what they suggest, is that action is always worth it, because it’s necessary.
As with much of Anderson’s work, One Battle is a fluid evocation of world class filmmaking. It moves. Then it moves. And moves. And doesn’t stop moving much until it’s done.
What’s so thrilling about the movie is not just its formal construction, which is idealistic, and deeply considered, but it’s what every thoughtful choice reveals about every character. It’s that Anderson always puts the camera in the right place and the choreography of the framing always means something about everyone in that frame.
As a formal exercise, One Battle is immaculate. But it also feels open, immediate, and improvisational, as though the filming is tight and devised on the fly, and every choice is the right one.
Precision and virtuosity ring through all of Anderson’s choices in One Battle — which is an absolute elevation of what modern American filmmaker seeks to do. This is filmmaking deeply entrenched in what filmmaking can do at its most maximal potential, not just a radical political film but a radical film about parenting and what gets passed on.