That was the best movie I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Felt like it anyway. Back when I was still a teenager chronologically replacing Tarantino my favorite director became PTA mainly due to seeing Magnolia (1999, Paul Thomas Anderson) five times in the theater. Although his last three films all took time for me to warm up to. Especially Licorice Pizza. But I just saw Licorice Pizza again a few days ago in 70mm blowup at my neighborhood theater and I got a lot more out of it. Particularly the way these two young people are trying so hard to be older or more sophisticated or confident or accomplished in competition with each other. The way their flaws aggravate each other. His newest film took me back to that sense of instant recognition of greatness.
Coincidentally both Tarantino and Anderson remain two of the few directors who have held out and continue to shoot on film. They're also two of the only directors in the world who have written all of their own screenplays and make big budget Hollywood studio pictures. Both have made roughly the same amount of films (9-10). Most of the movies they've both made have been set in L.A. And the same actor has starred in each of their last films: Leonardo DiCaprio.
It’s the kinetic energy PTA designs that figuratively and literally keep everyone on the run. And the threat of danger is palpable. It taps into that real life paranoia of the possibility of secret government agendas targeting you. Or cops. Or you know like they could be capable of. Also my entire life I feel like I’ve only ever encountered that former revolutionary trope countless of times like the Dude being boomer burnouts who claim to have been involved in all these radical groups in the 60s but you kind of take it as tall tales or even completely exaggerated ineffectual fraud. In One Battle After Another by updating the former revolutionary thing to a more contemporary setting and showing how serious about it they all really were is part of how the film deals with such real stakes. What happened to revolutionaries? My hunch is we stopped using that word ever since 9/11 because President George W. Bush replaced it with terrorist.
Another trope so overused (I realize that’s redundant) is going after a man’s daughter being the center of the conflict in a huge action movie. But this time around PTA makes it work. Fresh enough spin. Heartfelt. Pathos. I was on the edge of my seat feeling like I’d never seen a movie this good and how does PTA know how to write an action movie this well since he’s never made one before until around the ninety minute mark it popped into my head that okay this is finally after all just a dad getting his daughter back plot. And you know there’s no way in this film anything will prevent that. But alas? I could hardly hold that against it or say it in anyway diminishes its grandeur.
Seems like it’s also catering to a modern (youth) audience with its potsmoking black women loving not too bright hero played by an A lister icon like Leo. Good for us. The car chases are maybe the best part of the movie. After suffering from Marvel fight choreography rot I had recently been thinking how they may have ruined fights but I still love a good car chase. Heck I even rewatched Transformers Age of Extinction (2014, Michael Bay) just last week just for the car chase scenes. And I won’t bother to lookup the special ops government guy who interrogates characters trying to find Bob Ferguson and his daughter but his dialogue and casting also felt like a fresh take on something we’ve seen so many times before. Probably best movie of the year.
9/24/2025 Plaza Theatre
Atlanta, GA
70mm
Another trope so overused (I realize that’s redundant) is going after a man’s daughter being the center of the conflict in a huge action movie. But this time around PTA makes it work. Fresh enough spin. Heartfelt. Pathos. I was on the edge of my seat feeling like I’d never seen a movie this good and how does PTA know how to write an action movie this well since he’s never made one before until around the ninety minute mark it popped into my head that okay this is finally after all just a dad getting his daughter back plot. And you know there’s no way in this film anything will prevent that. But alas? I could hardly hold that against it or say it in anyway diminishes its grandeur.
Seems like it’s also catering to a modern (youth) audience with its potsmoking black women loving not too bright hero played by an A lister icon like Leo. Good for us. The car chases are maybe the best part of the movie. After suffering from Marvel fight choreography rot I had recently been thinking how they may have ruined fights but I still love a good car chase. Heck I even rewatched Transformers Age of Extinction (2014, Michael Bay) just last week just for the car chase scenes. And I won’t bother to lookup the special ops government guy who interrogates characters trying to find Bob Ferguson and his daughter but his dialogue and casting also felt like a fresh take on something we’ve seen so many times before. Probably best movie of the year.
9/24/2025 Plaza Theatre
Atlanta, GA
70mm
1 comment:
The only syllable of this I think I don't agree with is "without trailers", hahaha
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