Is One Battle After Another as great as the critics say? 

One Battle After Another was in theaters in September (I missed) and is now streaming. Casual viewers have likely heard of it because of all the buzz it got from critics and the certainty that many of the actors as well as the film will be the darling of award season. The film is already nominated (as a comedy) for best picture at the Golden Globes as are the leading and supporting actors. There has been quite a bit of chatter from right wing reviewers that the film is extremely left wing and basically a progressive fairytale. 

Is that true? 

The Conservative Critic asks: Is it entertaining? Does it have artistic/intellectual value? And is it liberal propaganda? 

The Conservative Critic Meter Check: One Battle After Another 

Overall Rating: You won’t like it and neither did I but it was well made

I didn’t like the movie. I thought it was very long and so liberally minded that I simply could not engage with the material. Unlike other reviewers, I tell you my bias. I am a conservative and this movie was simply not made from a frame of mind I could even comprehend and this fact almost certainly colored my review of this movie in every facet even where I tried to be objective. 

The film follows first a group of “revolutionaries” then one of their members as their past catches up to them. It has a lot of action sequences (One Battle after Another is an apt name for the film). Its billed as a dark comedy and it is that but it walks a very fine line between comedy and drama where most of the satire is more dark than comedy. The style is pulpy with the character names being a joke in-and-of-themselves and with very over the top dialogue and unbelievable sequences. But a bit more on the edge of realism compared to other films of its kind. 

The movie takes the side of these “revolutionaries” fighting “facism” and in the second half of the movie the “facism” is more clear but the first half they just show like a regular police man and a normal looking ICE holding facility obviously making the argument these normal law enforcement methodologies are gateways to facism [eye roll to the extreme]. The revolutionaries are cartoonish but in a dreamy way. It really reads like a liberal fantasy like how they see themselves when they justify violence and vagrancy and counter-culturalism. 

So I hated it but I did think the performances were good, especially Leonardo DiCaprio. The cinematography was also quite good. 

Is it entertaining? 

Rating: A lot of action but way too long 

The first hour of the movie is set up. The first HOUR. I got to the point where the true plot was beginning and I still had almost two hours to go. This movie was far too long for the material it covered. It needed to be at least 45 minutes shorter. That being said, it is nothing but action. There is not a lot of time spent meandering around character development and very few expositional conversations (they did exist and they should have been cut). If a viewer is of the liberal mindset or can get past the bad ideology, the movie has some clever humor and is nothing but action. 

Does it have artistic/intellectual value

Rating: Leo’s best work in a long time 

Leonardo DiCaprio is very good in the movie. He plays a young, ideological progressive anarcho-terrorist (or “revolutionary” as the film calls him) who grows to become a worn down, paranoid father. He portrays this character with a lot of subtlety and with a total suspension of disbelief. Some of his more recent work like that in Killers of the Flower Moon has been really heavy handed and I thought not very good at all. In this film, he brings his character, Bob really to life and despite everything I said I hated, he almost makes me root for him. This is a credit to Leonardo but also to the director Paul Thomas Anderson who must have been able to give clear and authoritative direction to the seasoned veteran.

Additionally, the way the movie is filmed is really strong. Particularly, there is a lot of on foot chase scenes and it favored a mix of boom shots of these chases which sort of disconnects the viewer from the person being chased in a way I found interesting and very enjoyable. There are a lot of thoughtful choices with lighting, costuming and set design that make the film feel sort of tangible. It was easier to watch strictly visually speaking than a lot of movies I’ve seen recently. 

Overall, the film was well made and the buzz around its quality is probably well deserved. It would be scored higher here if not for the abysmal scripting which had things that too abruptly broke the fourth wall like one guard at the gate for an ICE detention facility (and that detail wasn’t intended as a joke). 

Is it liberal propaganda? 

Rating: LOL uh yeah

There has been a lot of discourse back and forth on whether or not this movie is liberal. Let me put that to rest: it is without question a liberal fantasy. 

Some argued that the theme of “fighting facism” doesn’t know political boundaries and that would be true (think of movies like V for Vendetta which do defy political boundaries) except the way the “revolutionaries” are depicted is so specific to the liberal fairytale land. They use catch phrases like “black power” and “pussy power” which exist in modern day liberal activism. They depict an ICE detention center as a gateway to facism. They feature the liberal fairytale that evil racists actually are just sexually aroused by the focus of their racism. I don’t actually personally know any evil racists, but I’m pretty sure they don’t want to have sex with the object of their hatred, I think it’s safer to take them at their word that they hate them for real. 

Most of the movie continuously depicts illegal immigration enforcement as evil facism and police officers (who are not given back story at all) as generically evil operators. The villains of the story are White Supremacists which I agree white supremacists are evil but the movie makes them seem a lot more common than the are in real life and argues that the reason for immigration enforcement is white supremacy. 

Its all right out of the 2025 liberal playbook. There’s nothing interesting about the position except that I do think it more effectively than any other film plays out the liberal fantasy of what “punching Nazis” looks like only of course, the Nazi’s are all in their imagination. Anyone who deports someone who entered the country illegally is considered a Nazi by these people and this film. 

So yeah despite the protestations of liberal media which they think are so so clever, the movie is of course extremely liberal. 

Conclusion: 

I would skip One Battle After Another because its super lib and very long. But I do think Leo is a strong contender for awards season as is probably the film itself. It will also be a contender for the Conservative Critic Fail Award.