One Battle After Another
[4K/Digital]
Boy, this is a tough one, but what better time than awards season when everyone is just going gaga over this to talk about it.
I love PTA. I love him a lot, actually. Especially when you consider Phantom Thread and There Will Be Blood. His movies might not all be my cup of tea, but they’re definitely compelling and strange. Like a David Lynch movie that’s more grounded in reality. You can follow what you’re seeing on screen, you just don’t always undertand WHY it’s happening exactly.
I went into One Battle After Another with high hopes, because of all this. Because I knew I was going to see something interesting. And One Battle After Another is definitely interesting.
Look, I’m not going to beat around the bush with this one. I’ve spent too much time thinking and rethinking why exactly I couldn’t connect with this movie. PTA movies are all about characters, and I didn’t like a single character in this movie, except maybe for Benicio Del Toro’s character. But, he’s not even that integral to the plot. He serves maybe as an example of someone who is prepared and has his shit together, quite in contrast to everyone else in this movie. And maybe that’s the point. But everyone was just too driven by selfish motives, or was just too much of a bumbling idiot for me to really feel sympathetic for them. People kind of go through an arc, but most of them don’t have an ending that feels fair or justified. Like, all this work, for what, exactly? This is a long-ass movie, man, and I need a reason to come back to it.
It’s not like I expect PTA movies to have much of a plot, but that could have been a saving grace here. It’s not. And that’s OK, it doesn’t have to be.
Of course, this movie looks great, of course it has intentionally funny moments, of course it has great performances, of course you’re seeing stuff in this movie you haven’t seen – and are not going to see – anywhere else, but the question is whether the ride is really worth it. This is a long-ass movie, man.
Some PTA movies leave you wondering about the arc of their characters, or their motivation, or the overall message the director is trying to convey. This one will leave you wondering whether PTA even made a good movie to begin with.
