Wow, can PTA make a fine Thomas Pynchon adaptation!
My neck hurt by the end from how physically tense it made me. I was flinching like crazy at all the super loud gunshots and explosions. Holy Moly, Buckle Up! That car chase was easily my favorite sequence. Junglepussy is the best character!
Revolution
“One Battle After Another” (OBAA) highlights turbulent tension between two militias of wildly different extremist flavors: one being a progressive left-leaning revolutionary group and the other, hard-right white supremacists. The French 75 and the White Christmas Club wackos, respectively. The former are working-class revolutionaries fighting racism and classism while liberating detained immigrants; the latter are rich, racist white men with seats in government and the military… sound familiar? The film pins Bob Ferguson (played by Leonardo Dicaprio) against Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (played by Sean Penn) as dueling father figures battling over custody or control over Bob’s missing daughter, Willa (played by Chase Infiniti) in the absence of her mother and former Badass leader of the revolutionary group, Perfidia Beverly Hills (played by Teyana Taylor) filled with great acting and high spectacle cinema!
Snap Crackle Pop
The very first scene shows the French 75 storming an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility to free all the detainees. We’re given a lot to visually digest like pay phones, court house bombs, and lots of car chases!
Perfidia, the fearless leader, takes control in a disturbing yet pivotal scene with her bound enemy, Lockjaw. She weaponizes sex as humiliation, igniting his obsession with her. Their twistedly tense yet humorous dynamic is sharp commentary on power and control. Later, after she gives birth to Willa, Perfidia is captured and tortured for information on her comrades.
After leaking their identities, she’s killed off-screen. I understand why they didn’t show it, but it’s a let down. She’s too strong of a character to just vanish like that. It also might read as a little misogynist to have such an incredibly strong woman just sleep with her enemy but hey, maybe homegirl has a soft spot for angry white men in tight shirts? Her scene with Lockjaw is played for laughs, at least from the two screenings I attended, in the background of the opening action. It adds nuanced tension and depth to show a flaw in such a morally strong character tempted under pressure. Flipping the conventional power dynamics is what makes Willa’s character even more important, that Perfidia purposefully had a baby with a man who hates her guts. A generational “insult” to him and a blessing to us all that lives on in the film to rise up to the occasion and defend herself, her community, and our future from evil white supremacists.
Lockjaw being the biological father of Willa sets up the film’s core theme: obsessing over genetics is harmful and there’s more strength in a diverse community. Lockjaw and Bob embody nature vs. nurture. One worshipping genetics, the other nurturing empathy and growth. To focus on the content of one’s character rather than judging a book by its cover. The stoic and cold Colonel is the foil to the warm, washed-up, funny stoner fail-dad, Bob, who is desperately trying to get his daughter back. This cat and mouse chase is wildly entertaining and spirals down the rest of the film like bald eagles during courtship. The pacing is so captivating, you hardly feel the almost three-hour runtime. Most of the film has you cheering for their final confrontation but we’re robbed of that moment because Lockjaw is murdered by a member of the Christmas Club because they found out he slept with a Black woman.
Perfidia Beverly Hills: “Every revolution starts fighting demons, those motherfuckers end up fighting themselves.”
One Reaction After Another
My favorite shot: a rooftop chase where Latinx skateboarders flee ICE, their silhouettes slicing through smoke-filled streets lit by flickering red and blue beacons. A poignantly beautiful reflection of our current fascist hellscape and the citizens who act as modern day heroes that step up to the plate in the face of a fascist, authoritarian regime (like that guy in the frog costume).
For those who thought Eddington was “too soon” I’d like to hear their reaction to OBAA because the barrel is still smoking hot. There’s a left-wing militia freeing immigrant detainees from an ICE center right from the jump! This could not have been released at a more appropriate time.
Perfidia’s betrayal, snitching under torture, recalls William O’Neal’s role in the death of Fred Hampton. It’s devastating to watch a revolution crumble from within, a reminder that punching up is hard when infiltrators can punch down from the inside. Perfidia’s legacy still haunts the rest of the film from her opulent dedication to revolution to serving the French 75’s neck fresh on a platter for the Christmas Adventurers Club.
My early-screening happened to be the same day as a real ICE facility shooting in Dallas where multiple detainees were murdered. It definitely heightened my fear of the gunshots given how current events are preventing the first act from being entirely escapist.
Conclusion
While many reviews focus on DiCaprio’s funny stoner performance, I think too many overlook Perfidia’s doomed revolution. I don’t blame them, it’s easy to get lost in all the jokes, explosions, and high-octane car chases.
His character is a funny vehicle for Willa’s story but with Perfidia, the film stops being about fathers and starts to ask what power can do to revolutionaries. Before being captured, she had the option of laying low to focus on family but she risked her friends’ and family’s security for the greater good. It’s a noble cause but death is too permanent to be seen as a positive. In her absence, Willa is left with an apparition of a strong leader as her role-model instead of the real thing.
Overall, I was quite enthralled with this very political, fun, modernist action film about a Black Panther tier revolution in modern day USA. If I had one main gripe, it’s that I’m mildly annoyed at the trope of giving the villain physical scars to represent evil as it’s poor representation for disabled people.
That said, I’m still overjoyed that Bobo (played by Colton Santana Gantt), a non-binary character in a Hollywood blockbuster, had actual speaking lines! That’s huge for representation. Granted, they do snitch on their comrade, Willa, to the police, which sucks, but any representation is better than no representation. Especially for a movie as popular as this one, it’s great how a wide audience can be exposed to a minority group they might have otherwise never interacted with.
Willa: “It’s not that hard! They/Them!”
One thing that’s certain is that the acting from the entire cast is phenomenal. Chase Infiniti will easily win an academy award, hands down! I’m giving high praise and sending high hopes that she continues to sparkle like the Chicago star she is! (She even recommended visiting the Music Box Theatre in her Late Night interview with Jimmy Fallon).
