A review of 'One Battle After Another'

Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA) writes, produces, and directs his new film, "One Battle After Another," which can best be described as his "State of the Nation Address.

- By PHILIP CU UNJIENG

It’s well-crafted and entertaining, with terrific momentum and pacing, such that the nearly three hours fly by. And it may well be his most entertaining film yet, while still being thematically rich. He exposes the inherent contradictions of the contemporary American psyche, while offering a cold analysis of what is both right and wrong about it.

If PTA’s There Will Be Blood (2007) was historical and too intense, The Phantom Thread (2017) was detached and elegant; here, he combines the playfulness of Boogie Nights (1997) with a deep dive into the lives of American radicals of the late 2000s, and their struggle to grow up, age, and navigate today’s world. While Anderson adapted Thomas Pynchon’s novel Inherent Vice in a previous film, here he is inspired by some of the characters found in another Pynchon book, Vineland.