In my mid-20s, I began to start reading William Faulkner novels but really couldn’t get into them. After reading about 100 pages of Absalom! Absalom!, I gave up and returned the book to the library. A family friend said I should’ve read page 101.
Well, no. I believe an author has a 30-40 page limit to get you involved into their work before you should just give up. Filmmaker/actor Samuel Fuller once said, “If a story doesn’t give you a hard-on in the first couple of scenes, throw it in the goddamned garbage.”
Yes, sir. I’ve sat through so many movies that are suffering from erectile dysfunction, you wonder what the hell the filmmaker is trying to do. Paul Thomas Anderson has always impressed me from the start with his early works (Hard Eight and Boogie Nights) and then his epic sagas (Magnolia and There Will Be Blood) which are some of the greatest movies of the last 50 years.
But then he hit the skids. I sat through The Master once but had no desire to sit through it again. Inherent Vice was good but I couldn’t get into Phantom Thread. And Cooper Hoffman irritated the hell out of me in Licorice Pizza, I couldn’t relate at all.
Going into One Battle After Another, you might find yourself annoyed at Teyana Taylor’s performance that is so horrible, you might turn it off. But the good news is she’s gone after the first 30 minutes or so. This isn’t spoilers but reassurance; you don’t have to look at her terrible cosmetic surgery gone wrong face and endure her community theater playhouse overacting much.
I even think Anderson is trolling us by having both the characters played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn to be totally aroused by her. But her Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win is proof that money and power of suggestion can get you almost anything. Once Taylor’s Perfidia Beverly Hills leaves the movie in an extended prologue, the rest of the movie is a thrill ride.
Just a backstory, Perfidia and “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun (DiCaprio) were part of a left-wing ultra militant group French 75 that is similar to Weather Underground. Perfidia and Pat start a relationship but she soon finds herself beginning an affair with Steven. J. Lockjaw (Penn) a corrupt military officer who trades sex for letting her go rather than arresting her.
But during a bank robbery, Perfidia kills someone and rats out the rest of the group leading to arrests and some being killed by law enforcement. She then flees the country and the years pass. Pat is now living in hiding getting high most of the time and changed his named to Bob Ferguson. He’s raising the 16-year-old Willa (Chase Infiniti in a far better role) amidst the paranoia they’re still running from the law. She’s not allowed to have a cell phone (but does) and forced to carry an old-style pager around with her.
Lockjaw has now been promoted to a colonel and wants to be included in an elite but heavily white supremacist organization called the Christmas Adventurers Club. But he’s worried the leaders might find out about his past indiscretions with Perfidia. There’s also concern that Willa could be his love child even though Pat/Bob thinks Willa is his biological daughter.
So, Lockjaw uses his abilities as a military officer to start a crackdown to find both Pat/Bob and Willa leading for both to go on the run in separate ways.
The movie mixes black comedy with an action/adventure style that works thanks to how Anderson (who based the movie loosely on Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland) manages everything. Some people on the right have criticized it for its leftist views but I would argue the movie takes jabs at both sides. French 75 doesn’t realize it’s doing the same thing it’s accusing the other side of doing. Or maybe they do and they feel they are justified. Either way they are wrong and a conversation Pat/Bob has with a member on the phone will have people laughing how insecure the member says he is.
The movie moves away from the tone that others (Running on Empty, The Mosquito Coast and Captain Fantastic) has done. Pat/Bob has become so stoned he doesn’t understand how distant Willa is getting nor does he really see himself as a good father. Also, DiCaprio and Anderson make Pat/Bob a character who was never a leader but has remained in hiding mostly because of luck. He can’t even remember the codes he’s supposed to make on phone calls.
It was really just only a matter of time before he would find himself on the run again as the law tightens around him.
As for Lockjaw, he’s a criticism of the double-standard of those on the right. I would say he does have some prejudice but he sees the Club as a social standing not something he deeply believes in. I’ve heard of a few bigoted people having interracial illegitimate children. It really shouldn’t matter but the Club sees itself dating back to the era when Anglos and Saxons got together. Also, their use of “Christmas” shows how out of touch they are with actual world history and cultures.
I also don’t think it’s happenstance Lockjaw’s silver-grey hair resembles Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor who was a heavily far-right conservative Congressman. Even though it was released in 2025, I feel the movie is set around the times of 2010 give or take a year or so as the prologue is set in a pre-9/11 1990s where it was easier for people to use fake IDs and passports to flee the country. Also, Pat/Bob makes a few phone calls on pay phones which haven’t been around for years.
Benecio Del Toro steals every scene he’s in as Sergio St. Carlos who is Willa’s karate sensei. As for Infiniti herself, she is wonderful in her first movie role. It’s a shame the Academy Awards didn’t nominate her. To share the scene with DiCaprio, Del Toro and Penn and hold her own against everyone is a wonderful sign she will be a great actress for years to come.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 