Trin Bonner
“One Battle After Another,” is — in no uncertain terms — the most politically cognizant film of the 2020s.
While other attempts at contemporary political satire like “Eddington” and “Don’t Look Up” have found success, none have yet to perfectly capture and harness the ethos of current political relations in the manner in which visionary director Paul Thomas Anderson has done with his new action thriller based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland.”
The film, which pits Leonardo DiCaprio and Chase Infiniti’s Bob and Willa Ferguson against Sean Penn’s maniacal and sociopathic Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, is as funny as it is thrilling, as widereaching as it is intimate and as cleverly satiric as it is harrowingly realistic.
DiCaprio’s portrayal of Bob Ferguson, a — wishfully — retired revolutionary who has spent the past 15 years of his life in a state of stoned paranoia while raising a daughter on his own, is easily one of his best of the past decade. While it may be hard to top his subtly disturbing portrayal of murderer Ernest Burkhart in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the award-winning actor has thrown his second punch with Bob Ferguson, and it connected.
The film follows Bob and Willa as they attempt to evade the pursuing Colonel Lockjaw, who is attempting to hunt the duo down due to both Bob’s involvement with left-wing revolutionary group the French 75 and Lockjaw’s own sexual obsession with Bob’s partner and Willa’s mother, Perfidia Beverly Hills.
Perfidia — played with lightning-in-a-bottle intensity by Teyana Taylor — leaves the screen during the film’s first act, yet is easily one of the most complex and beautifully written political characters in contemporary film. Perfidia is a daughter of Black revolutionaries who seems to be fighting two simultaneous battles at all times: One with the powers that be and the other with herself.
Through Taylor’s masterly execution, Perfidia becomes a character defined by her inability to fit a definition. There is truly no guessing what will happen next when Perfidia is on screen, and it is unbelievably refreshing to see a character like her take the mantle of leftist revolutionary, as oftentimes in recent political satire this mantle has been placed on the annoying, too-woke activist, leading to more eye-rolling than interesting satire.
Anderson certainly isn’t afraid to play with the annoying woke-scold archetype, however. Bob Ferguson’s interactions with “Comrade Josh” — the faceless voice whose space Bob “violates” by screaming at him on the telephone for refusing to help because Bob got too high to remember the unnecessarily long password — make for some of the most hilarious moments in the film.
Despite his willingness to joke around with the annoying leftist stereotype, one of Anderson’s best narrative decisions is the way he makes it exactly clear who he believes the more harmful side to be. Yes, Comrade Josh might be silly in his claims of “noise triggers,” and Willa might be too harsh on her dad for not understanding they/them pronouns, but their ideological opposite is portrayed through a racist secret society that recruits Colonel Lockjaw to aid them in their goal of “racial purification” — hardly a two-sides-of-the-same-coin situation.
Even putting the secret society aside, Anderson is certainly not kind in his portrayal of the United States government. Lockjaw, who has worked his way up the ranks of the military due to his aid in dismantling the French 75 and his harshly enforced immigration stance, serves as a kind of synecdochical representation of the U.S. military as a whole. He is fragile, masculinity-obsessed, racist, hypocritical and just plain evil.
Penn’s depiction of Lockjaw is easily one of the best portrayals of a pure villain in recent memory. There is absolutely nothing redeemable about Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw. His actions, his mannerisms and even his walk are utterly reprehensible. It is almost crystal clear Lockjaw was written with pure disdain for this archetype of “alpha man.”
In particular, Penn’s scenes with Infiniti are some of the most captivating in the entire film. Willa holds nothing but resentment toward Lockjaw and what he represents, and the way Infiniti plays off Penn’s hate-inspiring performance is beautiful to watch.
Easily making one of the strongest cases for best supporting actor this year, Infiniti’s feature film debut is nothing short of incredible. Willa Ferguson is not the action movie daughter that sits idly while her big strong dad comes to save her. With the exact same flame in her eyes as in Taylor’s, Infiniti lights up the screen with her unflinching, strong and immensely complex portrayal of Willa.
Perhaps the best aspect of “One Battle After Another” is its depth. Each beat of the narrative not only adds to the story unfolding in front of the viewer’s eyes, but also creates a world far deeper than other contemporary political satires have endeavored to create. When French 75 revolutionary Junglepussy leaps on top of a bank countertop and delivers a speech about fueling her revolution, Anderson’s world grows deeper; when Benicio Del Toro’s sensei perfectly juggles Bob’s paranoia while evacuating an entire underground railroad of illegal immigrants, Anderson’s world grows richer; and when the secret society harshly punishes a member for failing to uphold their racial purity standards, Anderson’s world grows more harrowingly realistic.
The film’s weakest moment, in fact, is when it seems to abandon this depth in its final act. Although this weakness certainly seemed far less impactful on a second viewing, the neat little bow Anderson leaves tied as the credits roll feels like it could have warranted a couple extra minutes of runtime to match its depth up with the rest of the film.
It is, of course, impossible to discuss “One Battle After Another,” without analysis of Anderson’s own biography. Anderson and his long-term partner Maya Rudolph are parents to four children, and it would be foolish to analyze Bob Ferguson’s third-act monologue about how he feels like he is failing as a father, commenting he doesn’t know how to do his biracial daughter’s hair, and not draw parallels to Anderson’s own life.
After all, “One Battle After Another” is above all else a story between a father and a daughter. It is about the struggles and triumphs of a father who has lost his purpose and a daughter seeking to make her own way in the world. What could be more human and down-to-earth than that?
Reach Willow Engle at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.