Anderson finally gets to steal the show

After 11 nominations but no win, Academy voters award film-maker Paul Thomas Anderson the best picture Oscar for One Battle After Another

- By Xan Brooks

Oscar night climaxed with a metaphorical whiff of gunpowder and a defiant rebel yell as One Battle After Another broke late to claim the best picture and director awards at the Dolby theatre in downtown Los Angeles. If it is true that Americans get the presidents they deserve, it follows that they should get the appropriate Academy Award winner as well.

Paul Thomas Anderson's rambunctious counterculture thriller is the perfect film for an imperfect America, brilliantly reading the tea-leaves of Donald Trump's second term with its tale of leftist activists in a proto-fascist California. One Battle After Another was the most political of the best picture nominees and that might have made the difference. But it was arguably the most ambitious, rousing and lip-smackingly satisfying too.