The Robe Runner | Defector

""She's a runner, you a stone." That's a weird thing to say to Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Pat Calhoun, in One Battle After Another, given that the first time we see him in the film, he is in motion, chasing after his fellow members of the left-wing revolutionary group French 75. But then you kind of get what his girlfriend's mother means."

"Once he catches up with his team, which is about to break a bunch of people out of a detention center, it's with a nervous energy in tow. He doesn't know the plan. His girlfriend, Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), is the real revolutionary. But him? He's got the kind of anxious electricity that spins you in circles, keeping you on the same spot, dug in even further-in other words, a stone."

Pat Calhoun appears as a restless, anxious member of the left-wing revolutionary group French 75 whose energy contrasts with his girlfriend Perfidia's committed revolutionary role. Perfidia is heavily pregnant, confident and weapon-ready, while Pat feels lost and uncertain. Perfidia disappears, leaving Pat to raise their daughter Willa alone, which initially gives him purpose. When Willa goes AWOL, Pat becomes a paranoid ex-guerilla who smokes, watches The Battle of Algiers and wears an aged plaid robe that echoes Perfidia's clothing. The robe functions as a visual symbol of his split identity between stagnation and active pursuit of his child.

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