Paul Thomas Anderson’s new action thriller “One Battle After Another” makes a great attempt at striking a balance between evoking the audience’s emotions and inspiring a dialogue, even though it doesn’t fully get there.
“One Battle After Another” follows Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he chases after his daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), in an attempt to save her from government officials who try to imprison them both in the hope that they can offer information about the French 75, a militant leftist organization Bob was once affiliated with. Willa is under the temporary custody of Deandra (Regina Hall), another individual associated with the French 75, until Bob is able to find them and escape with his daughter.
However, Bob has little luck, and throughout the movie he continues to fall further and further behind his daughter. As they become more distant, he becomes increasingly concerned for her whereabouts. The sound design drives this home; the soundtrack of the entire movie is defined by an off-kilter piano designed to make you feel Bob’s anxiety.
Along with the sound design, there are so many interesting cuts and camerawork decisions that express the tension held by Bob and, at points, his daughter. There’s one sequence where the daughter comes to realize things about her parents’ actions in the organization that break her perception of the world, and the editing communicates her resentment towards them in that moment perfectly.
However, when you start to analyze this movie it falls apart completely. There are two themes that hold the majority of the screentime: the fear a father has for his daughter’s growing independence, and the idea of Bob passing the revolutionary baton to Willa. The majority of the movie focuses on the organization’s changing role in the political sphere, and it feels reductive to ignore it, but the only interesting interpretation is to focus solely on the father-daughter relationship.
One point made throughout the movie is that Bob’s paranoia around being caught stifles his daughter’s growth because he is afraid her independence would mean the loss of the safety they both need to rely on to evade the state. Around when she was born, he decided they should live off the grid to be protected from the government, but she resents that choice and wants to be more connected with a community. Bob fears that could threaten the limited peace he has struggled to find for them both. Regardless of her father’s anxieties, at the end of the movie Willa is depicted as having won that independence after having to fend for herself.
Outside of this, a lot of the movie attempts to make comments on the French 75, but nothing of substance is said. Its most impactful moments are jokes about the inefficiency of the organization or displays of how it fell apart at the slightest bit of pressure. Everything is treated as a joke, and as a result none of the commentary comes across as sincere.
The opening sequence of the movie emulates parts of the 1966 film “The Battle of Algiers,” a movie about the rise and fall of an organization which attempted a revolt against French colonial rule in Algeria. That film is about the organization coming together and collapsing, making the limited commentary on the French 75 feel even more lackluster. The commentary of the movie falls apart if you try to take it as anything greater than a joke.
However, other than that, there isn’t really anything to critique. The sound design and editing are amazing, and the film masterfully ties them together to depict the tension incredibly accurately. Even though the message leaves more than a little to be desired, it’s definitely possible to enjoy the movie without attempting to extract a ton from it. “One Battle After Another” gets four out of five stars out of me.
