Format: Streaming video from HBOMax on Fire!
We need a regular reminder that the Oscars are political and rarely correct. I say this because Paul Thomas Anderson is almost certainly going to win Best Director on Sunday and One Battle After Another seems likely to take Best Picture. The reason this is upsetting is that this is clearly not the best movie of this year and not the best directorial performance. However, Paul Thomas Anderson is a top director and much like the year that Christopher Nolan won for Oppenheimer, people have decided that it’s Anderson’s year.
That’s frustrating. Paul Thomas Anderson, to be fair, does have 14 nominations and no wins, so I understand the sentiment that he is due for a win. The problem is that One Battle After Another, while a fine movie, is not anything close to Anderson’s best work. This feels like Pacino winning an Oscar for Scent of a Woman or Paul Newman finally winning for The Color of Money. But, that’s where we are, and in a couple of days, it’s likely that that’s where we’ll remain.
We’re going to start in the past with a group of radicals who call themselves the French 75. Among the group are “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), who are involved with each other. In a raid on an immigration facility freeing migrants, Perfidia sexually embarrasses the commanding officer, Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), who quickly becomes obsessed with her. When he catches her planning a bomb, he tells her he will let her go if she has sex with him.
Perfidia soon gives birth to a girl named Charlene. Pat wants to settle down, but Perfidia continues her revolutionary ways. She’s eventually caught after she kills someone during a bank robbery. Perfidia is put into the Witness Protection program and flips on a number of her French 75 colleagues, who are hunted down and killed by Lockjaw. Pat and Charlene are given new identities by fellow revolutionaries, becoming Bob and Willa (Chase Infiniti) Ferguson, and Perfidia flees witness protection for Mexico.
That’s the set up. The bulk of the movie takes place 16 years later, and things are set into motion when Lockjaw, thanks to his work in anti-immigration, is contacted by a group that calls themselves the Christmas Adventurers Club. The Christmas Adventurers are a group of wealthy or military-connected white supremacists, and a part of the entry requirements are that members can never have had an interracial relationship. The existence of Charlene/Willa is at least potentially a huge problem for him, so now he turns his team on rounding up any remaining members of the French 75 so that he can track her down, and if necessary, kill her so that his entry into the secret society won’t be blocked.
Honestly, it’s a great idea for a story. Regardless of politics (note: not regardless of whether or not you’re a racist), Willa is someone who is clearly sympathetic. She’s in direct, mortal danger simply because she exists. This is true if you’re on the political right (although, since Willa isn’t purely white you might not care as much) and think Pat/Bob is worthless. It’s true if you’re on the left as well.
So let’s talk about the Oscar nominations. It feels like the Best Picture nomination was a foregone conclusion. This is true of Paul Thomas Anderson as well. One thing that seems to happen when it comes to the Oscars is that a director or actor/actress will start getting nominated as a rule until they win. And, that’s why he’ll win—the movie is good, and that’s going to be enough to give him the Oscar that everyone has decided he has deserved since Boogie Nights.
The nomination that surprises me the most is that there wasn’t one for Chase Infiniti. She’s the heart of this film and if we’re going to get a nomination for Paul Thomas Anderson, Sean Penn, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Teyana Taylor, why Infiniti was overlooked seems insane to me.
The truth is that One Battle After Another is fine, but it’s not anything close to Anderson’s best film. I’m not sure I’d put it in his top-5, although I admit that this is a somewhat controversial opinion. There’s a lot to like here, but I don’t know that beyond some of the characterizations and the idea behind it, that there’s a lot to love about it.
Why to watch One Battle After Another: PTA is a top director.
Why not to watch: He’s been better.
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