"One Battle After Another" Is a Powerhouse of Tenderness and Fury

"At a crucial moment in "One Battle After Another," Paul Thomas Anderson's electrifying new action thriller, someone cries out, "Who are you?!" A fair question. The man being asked is Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), who, in a past life, was known as Pat, Ghetto Pat, and Rocket Man. The movie opens in that past life, with Pat a member of the French 75, a ragtag band of militants who free imprisoned migrants and bomb the offices of pro-life politicians."

"She's played by Teyana Taylor, who lit up the independent drama "A Thousand and One" (2023) as an ex-con determinedly raising a son. Here, with a flinty gaze and revolutionary fervor, Taylor casts maternal instinct to the winds. In a startling image, a pregnant Perfidia fires off rounds with a machine-gun butt pressed against her swollen belly. You worry about the poor kid's ears as you jam fingers into your own."

"The film's opening half hour is loud, tense, and extraordinarily propulsive: we follow the French 75 through raids, robberies, blown-up buildings, and smashed-up cars. Compounding the cacophony is a Jonny Greenwood score that veers between manic percolation-imagine a xylophone humping a coffeepot-and grandly operatic surges of synth. The music sweeps us up in the queasy thrill of revolt, but also in the heat and momentum of an impetuous romance. Perfidia and Pat are like an Antifa-pilled Bonnie and Clyde, minus the impotence."

Bob Ferguson, formerly Pat aka Ghetto Pat and Rocket Man, leads the French 75, a ragtag militant group freeing migrants and bombing pro-life offices. Perfidia Beverly Hills, played by Teyana Taylor, channels revolutionary fervor and maternal recklessness, famously firing rounds with a machine-gun butt pressed to her pregnant belly. The opening half hour is loud, tense, and propulsive, following raids, robberies, and explosions underscored by Jonny Greenwood's jittery, operatic synth score. Perfidia and Pat sustain an impetuous, dangerous romance. A sexual cat-and-mouse develops between Perfidia and U.S. Army officer Steven J. Lockjaw, complicating loyalties.

Read at The New Yorker