'One Battle After Another': The World of Politics and Pynchon

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Today marks the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, a swirling, dreamy story of a father and daughter seeking reunion in a world of revolutionaries, secret societies, and villains around every corner. As someone who isn't a ride or die PTA fan, One Battle knocked my metaphorical socks off (and you can read my review here).

SPOILERS FOR ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER FROM HERE ON OUT.

In the wake of our world today where :looks around: everything seems bad, One Battle After Another feels like a magnifying glass on what we're seeing today. It's so prescient I'm surprised the studio hasn't banned it a la Apple TV+. And my eye was caught by a post by freelance film critic Landon Johnson – who you'll recall from my post on Kimmel – talking about how he believed One Battle After Another glorified extremism, and how inappropriate it felt to him in our current political climate. As it stands right now it's got...a lot of comments and opinions. I even kindly mentioned my own thoughts on the subject which made me think I should expand on it in a piece.