[Cinema] Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘One Battle After Another’

Partially filmed at my office.

 

I'll be the dissenting voice. The movie was good. The acting top notch. I thought it was funny at times. I even agree that even with the long run it feels like a 90 minute movie...yet, I didn't love it. It was alright. Definitely wouldn't watch it again. Don't hate that I watched it, just didn't personally love it.

 

What’s your PTA ranks?

 

PTA?

 

Smh. Doesn’t know ball.

 

Ball don't lie.

 

I'm assuming you meant Paul Thomas Anderson but was just trying to confirm. Only watched Boogie Nights, another movie that wasn't quite my cup of tea. Honestly, not impressed with his filmography, although it seems others really love his stuff. I personally don't waste my time watching stuff others love if it doesn't pique my interest. Both Boogie Nights and One Battle After Another are films I wouldn't rewatch.

 

Boogie Nights
There Will Be Blood
Liccorice Pizza
Punch Drunk Love
Inherent Vice
Magnolia
The Master
Hard Eight
...
Phantom Thread

 

I enjoyed it a lot, great fun, and went well with an Alamo rocks margarita. Loved Del Toro and, TBH, this is the first time I've loved Leo in a long time. He owns the main role, as does the daughter character. Did not enjoy Penn as much -- he was just ridiculous and was clearly directed to be ridiculous.

It was not as funny as I expected after reading comments from others, but when it's funny, it's definitely out-loud funny. I felt it drag a tiny bit in parts; in that way, it does have a more 1970's or 1980's editing aesthetic. PTA lets some of the sequences unfold relatively slowly.

One amazing aspect is that, if PTA is writing this adaptation like, five or six years ago, he sure anticipated the current moment amazingly well. There's not that much of Pynchon's Vineland left in this narrative, and this movie nails (in partial parody) our current societal threads in all their absurdity.

Like @clos4life though, not sure I need to see it again.

 

I saw it Saturday and it did not disappoint! I regret drinking the big coke at the beginning of the movie as I could hardly make it 2 hours and 40 minutes........Leo was awesome, and I have to give it up to Sean Penn, he played that character brilliantly, but dam Spicolli got old....as did I

 

Absolutely incredible movie. Hype is real for this one. SO DAMN GOOD.

 

Dated and married Madonna back in the days, and that one was truly Old.

 

Any movie over 2 hours should be required to have an intermission

 

Antifa fan-fiction

 

I saw this yesterday and I thought it was great. I do not see how Leo does not win an Oscar for his performance. It was an amazing performance. All the actors did great, but he absolutely carried this movie.

 

This is what I've heard as well.

 

I liked the movie a lot. It was memorable and I loved all the surface-level stuff about it. But, I definitely wouldn't call it a masterpiece. It was immensely entertaining, and the pacing was fantastic for a 2.5+ hour film.

It feels like every aspect of the movie from the world-building, to the story, to the music, to the dialog, to the characters, to the acting (btw, all which I found great) can just be explained away by saying the goal was absurdity. So, if the movie was meant to be an absurd satire, then by the end of it I would hope to a more coherent point before I called it a masterpiece. The "point" is in the eye of the beholder, but I personally did not get that "Aha" moment where the ridiculousness of it all kind of came together for me. And if "absurdity" was the point, then I'd say I can already get that from my YouTube feed.

Now if it was meant to be a character study like a lot of other PTA films, then that's another thing. This movie seemed the opposite of a character study. No character felt fleshed out or believable, except maybe the military interview guy LOL.

This is kind of out of left field, but one of my favorite movies of all time is Brazil, which is also a ridiculous satire and one I would consider a masterpiece. Anyway....some of my favorite scenes were the ones with the Christmas group dudes chatting. Hilarious! I do think it's worth watching again some day to see if I feel any different after a second watch.