Why One Battle After Another should win the best picture Oscar

"One Battle After Another, from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, is the brawling rebel insider of this year's Oscar race; a state-of-the-nation Hollywood spectacular that feels as disunited and unstable as the country it depicts. The film hates America and it loves it, too. It's on the side of the angels even when it's not quite sure who they are."

"Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob, the one-time firebrand turned burnt-out stoner, who belatedly hauls himself off the couch when his daughter Willa is captured. Freely adapted from Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland, the film updates the book's jaundiced post-60s hangover for the ICE-age 2020s as the plot careens from the migrant detention camp to the sanctuary city to uncover a Christian Nationalist cell within the US federal government."

"Anderson's story feels volatile. Jonny Greenwood's jittery score sets the pace. One Battle After Another plays like a melody made from atonal notes, or a set of clashing component parts. According to the Golden Globes, it's a comedy, which is true to a point, inasmuch as it's rambunctious, profane and full of mischief. But it is also always deadly serious."

One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson's politically engaged film that adapts Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland for the contemporary 2020s landscape. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob, a former activist turned stoner who is motivated to act when his daughter Willa is captured. The narrative progresses through migrant detention camps and sanctuary cities while uncovering a Christian Nationalist cell within the federal government. The film balances volatile comedy with deadly seriousness, featuring a jittery score by Jonny Greenwood that creates an atonal, discordant aesthetic. The story explores themes of American division, immigration, and political extremism while maintaining both love and criticism for the nation, positioning itself as a state-of-the-nation Hollywood spectacle that reflects contemporary American instability.

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