Una battaglia dopo l'altra

I saw 'One Battle After Another' last night, and I'm still not sure I get the hype. On paper, the film has everything: social commentary, action, radical politics, immigration, parenthood, even extremism. It tries to juggle so many weighty ideas at once - and I do applaud that - it's ambitious, topical, clearly trying to stir the pot. But ambition alone doesn't make for satisfying cinema, and this one ends up messy.

At nearly three hours long, it's a slog when you still don't really know the people you're meant to care about. Not a single character feels grounded - Benicio del Toro aside (and even then, his screen time is frustratingly short). The rest make decisions that have zero logic in the absence of backstory, leaving them feeling exaggerated and hollow. So many talented actors, yet I wasn't rooting for anyone. The "big message" moments - racism, political division, systemic power, identity - land far too on the nose, skimming the surface without ever cutting deep.

If I'm being fair, one thing I did love was the soundtrack - tense, pulsing, and full of nervous energy, it injects more urgency than the script ever does. But pace and tone overall are uneven. PTA's usual offbeat humour is basically MIA, and without it, long stretches drag and feel oddly dull. The film indulges its own grandeur, with sprawling chases and spectacle, but without clarity or cohesion. Honestly? It's his weakest film yet. It wants to be grand, relevant, provocative - and in parts it succeeds - but just doesn't hold it together. In the end, there's no clear overall message, just a lot of battles, one after another, that feel thrown at you without being stitched into something coherent.

Based on some of Thomas Pynchon's novel "Vineland", P. T. Anderson's movie is amazing in its uncensored satirizing of the right-wing takeover of America. The great acting, especially by Sean Penn in a dynamic role as the heavy (somehow sympathetic without pulling any punches) plus realistic filmmaking is a bold approach to material that is speculative fiction in a dystopian mode.

Of the many highlights, I especially liked the style of an extended sort of chase scene among three cars on a rolling elevation highway -pure cinematic suspense with thrilling photography and editing. The heavy quotient of dark humor throughout is brilliant.

Went to see the movie because of the cast, but the promise, the delivery, and the highly confusing message was disappointing. No coherence anything at all, ended up walking out before the end.

-The movie seems to glorify revolution but "not really" and for no apparent reasons.

Would not recommend.

Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another is a film that wants to be epic but ends up didactic. There's no denying its technical accomplishments: the cinematography is vivid, almost painterly at times, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn deliver performances that are magnetic, commanding your attention even when the story falters.

And falter it does. The film's ambition - to comment on political extremism - is undercut by its simplistic moral universe. One side of the conflict is portrayed as entirely evil, with no redeeming qualities or relatability. Every action they take is chaotic, violent, or manipulative, leaving the audience with no one to sympathize with on that side. This lack of nuance turns the movie from a story into a political lecture, making it feel less like cinema and more like ideological instruction.

In a moment when America feels more divided than ever, the timing of such a film is jarring. Its portrayal of chaos and extremism is so stark that it risks being taken too seriously by audiences at either extreme, rather than prompting reflection. More troublingly, it underscores how out of touch Hollywood can be with most Americans, presenting a world of ideological extremes that few viewers would recognize in real life.

Still, the film isn't without merit. Anderson's eye for detail, his visual inventiveness, and the sheer force of DiCaprio and Penn's performances make it watchable even when it preaches. But for a director capable of deep, character-driven storytelling, this attempt at political commentary feels like a missed opportunity.

The movie "One Battle After Another", in summary, is about a former revolutionary on a mission to save his missing daughter. Directed and co-written by Paul Thomas Anderson, it's a thrilling political action flick that really shows off, once again, his talent for both writing and directing. However, the movie isn't consistent in its construction; at times it's unconvincing, and other times it feels unfocused. More than once, I had the same reaction I did with last year's "Emilia Pérez": a wildly original story that often seems to jump around without much logic, where anything can happen.

The whole movie basically belongs to Sean Penn as Col. Lockjaw. He totally steals the show with a character who's creepy, unhinged, and downright disturbing.

Like "Emilia Pérez", it's one of those stories you're either into from the start or you just don't care about at all.