Warning: The following review contains spoilers
The latest action-thriller from Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another” promises its audience to be an intelligent and thrilling film filled with intrigue, action and the complicated relationship between father and daughter.
But it does not deliver, in fact it completely misses the mark. That, however, does not stop critics from showering the film with hollow praise and accolades, with its score on Rotten Tomatoes reaching a staggering 96% Certified Fresh for the critical score and 85% from the audience. A film to be praised for its heavy resistance messaging, hair- raising action and fantastic cinematography. I attempted to ask any fellow movie goers if they felt the same after the film was over but shockingly, there was not a soul in the theatre.
This film’s featured actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, plays “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun (Bob Ferguson as his alias) later on in the film, a washed-up revolutionary from the far-left extremist group known as the “French 75”. For the first quarter of the film Teyana Taylor stars as his wife, Perfidia Beverly Hills. Chase Infiniti stars as the daughter of Bob and Perfidia, Charlene Calhoun (or Willa Ferguson as per her alias).They are center stage in the first half of the film, along with the other members of the French 75, along with as well as and the main big bad of the film, Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, the film’s representation as the oppressor. Lockjaw is shown overseeing an immigrant camp in the beginning of the film when he is held at gunpoint by Perfidia and forced Lockjaw to get an erection right in front of her, before being forcibly zip-tied and dragged out. Unnecessary? Possibly, but what is this compared to the name of one of these “Revolutionaries” being “Junglepussy?”
After this scene, through a series of montage clips of destruction in the name of revolution, we’re shown the major arrest of the French 75 after Lockjaw forces Perfidia to have sex with him to avoid a prison sentence. After this, Perfida and Bob have Charlene and because of Lockjaw are forced to go into hiding with their newborn daughter. Well, not Perfidia, she still needs to fight the fight, so she instead goes into forced witness protection by Lockjaw in order to then escape and find her daughter. Right?
Well, no, we actually never see Perfida’s character again. She is officially out of the film at around the halfway point, abandoning her husband and newborn daughter.
After watching the strange and disjointed beginning half of the glory days of the French 75, the film focuses on Bob Ferguson and his daughter living in a Sanctuary City called Bakhan Cross. Bob is shown to be drunk, high and an irresponsible father while his daughter is fierce, independent and loathing her father’s downward spiral. Though this is the film’s major plot point, we are not really given much time to come to understand these characters deeply, as important information is told to the audience rather than shown. We are told that Charlene is a fantastic student and how bad Colonel Lockjaw is but we really don’t see how bad he is. In fact his soldiers really don’t do anything. The police do more than his soldiers in the film, but to be fair, he is the representation of the “Corrupt Establishment” in his film.
Speaking of Lockjaw, he eventually finds the father-daughter duo and steals away Charlene to conduct a DNA test to see if she is actually his daughter so that he can join a white-only secret society called the “Christmas Adventurers.” This actually does segway into one of the more entertaining parts of the film, which was watching DiCaprio’s character run around a city trying to find his daughter in a plaid bathrobe and knitted cap. It was a lot of fun to watch what was essentially a homeless Leonardo DiCaprio run around and falling off four story buildings while running from the police. It was a wonderful palette cleanser.
Needless to say though, the film is very disjointed. The movie’s “Go-Go-Go” style of storytelling resulted in a film that really had no idea where it wanted itself to be and more-so wanted to fill as many clichés into its 162-minute runtime as it possibly could. Even then it doesn’t seem to have any desire of developing them and that is seen in the film’s major plot segments, the relationship between DiCaprio’s character and his daughter and how it develops throughout the film. Even the big twist with the DNA test, which ends up proving that Charlene is in fact the daughter of Lockjaw, is never relayed back to her father. The villain of the film is killed by a member of the organization he wishes to join upon learning that he indeed has a mixed child. He gets into a bloody car wreak and then is shown to be alive the next few scenes.
A film with great potential, as I believe many people could (and seemed to very well) have gotten along with this movie’s anti-establishment messages, falls flat on its face when it is demanded to be more than just a glorified trailer. It even won a Golden Trailer Award, perhaps the judges only watched the first hour and fifty minutes. Nevertheless, “One Battle After Another” is a series of things happening just because the film demands that things happen and when there are holes to fill, they throw in twists that leave unresolved plot points and unsatisfying endings.
