It’s been a good few years for thrillers, but you could also say that it’s always been a pretty good time for the genre, since there’s always been a desire for thrilling, exciting, and suspenseful films. They’re probably not going out of style any time soon, but if you want the best of the best, and are focusing specifically on fairly recent titles, then One Battle After Another is probably the easiest one to single out. To be fair, it’s more than just a thriller, since One Battle After Another also functions as an action movie, a dark comedy, and something of an epic, with a total runtime of well over 2.5 hours.
For as great as it is, it’s hard to call it the best Paul Thomas Anderson movie, since the director’s also got classics like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood to his name, but One Battle After Another is Anderson’s highest-grossing movie, and also his most successful at the Oscars, since it won a total of six Academy Awards. HBO Max was originally where the film could be streamed, but it’s moved to Prime Video, as of May 23, which is now (and currently) the most convenient place to watch One Battle After Another post-theatrical release.
The Premise of ‘One Battle After Another’
Very loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, One Battle After Another concerns an ex-revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) having to re-engage with the life he thought he left behind after his daughter (Chase Infiniti) is targeted by an old enemy (played by Sean Penn). There’s an extended opening that sets various things up before the film jumps forward 16 years, to what feels like modern day, with Penn’s villainous Col. Lockjaw driving a good deal of the conflict, even with him consistently riding the line between being intense and laughable.
It’s tonally offbeat, retaining some of that Pynchon energy, even if Vineland is ultimately quite different narratively, and certainly a good deal less approachable and outwardly exciting.
DiCaprio’s character is also out of his element for pretty much the whole movie, driving a good deal of the comedy, while heroic characters with less screen time prove more capable (and the same can be said about certain villainous characters being more dangerous than Lockjaw). It’s tonally offbeat, retaining some of that Pynchon energy, even if Vineland is ultimately quite different narratively, and certainly a good deal less approachable and outwardly exciting than One Battle After Another. Anyway, if you want to see Anderson do a somewhat more faithful Pynchon adaptation, there’s always Inherent Vice… which is the only other Pynchon adaptation, to date.
How ‘One Battle After Another’ Proves Thrilling and Suspenseful
There’s a great amount of tension throughout One Battle After Another, and the movie does a good job at feeling dangerous, in the sense that pretty much anything could happen at any point. To go back to another Paul Thomas Anderson movie, it’s the kind of thing he sort of did with Magnolia, but that one stayed away from the action and thriller genres, so there weren’t quite as many wild things that could happen… outside the bit with the frogs, maybe. But the nervous energy found throughout that film is channeled again in One Battle After Another, and you could also liken various sequences here to the more intense parts of Boogie Nights (like the New Year’s Eve scene).
And Anderson commits to helming a few action sequences throughout this film, which is a first for him. Hopefully, it’s not the last time he makes something within the genre, though, because the car chase near the climax shows he’s particularly (and surprisingly) good, as an action director. Also, the more absurd moments throughout do a good job at ensuring the intensity of the film sometimes lurches into comedy, which maintains that feeling of unpredictability. It’s honestly just as effective, as a satirical film, as it is an action/thriller movie.
The Legacy (Positive and Negative) That ‘One Battle After Another’ Has So Far
With its political commentary and willingness to tackle various modern-day issues, One Battle After Another hasn’t been embraced by everyone, and that’s probably the most gentle way to put things without going off the rails and exploring the film beyond its capacity to entertain and thrill. It’s an interesting thing to consider when pondering the film’s longevity, though. If society changes a great deal by, say, 2045, maybe One Battle After Another will look very dated, and of its time… though that might not be a bad thing, if it ends up being an effective time capsule for the mid-2020s.
It is a movie made right around the middle of said decade, and it is inherently about said decade in America, for better or worse. One Battle After Another is simple narratively, layered thematically, and ambitious genre-wise, what with it operating in so many different spheres at the one time, balancing comedy, action, suspense, and even some family drama (what with the emotional core of the film being, in the end, being between a father and his fiercely independent daughter). You might not be a fan of every part of this movie, but it’s hard to imagine someone not getting at least something out of this movie, even if it’s just an appreciation of some slick – and uniquely filmed – action alongside some well-executed suspense sequences.
