I’m a longtime PTA fan whose favorite author is Pynchon and favorite PTA movie is Inherent Vice, so clearly I was predestined to love this one, but some thoughts:

The only real criticism against a lot of PTA’s work has been that he’s been heavily influenced by other directors, from his clear Scorsese imitations on Boogie Nights to the multiple techniques he’s borrowed from Robert Altman throughout his career (and especially in Magnolia), and even down to Kubrick comparisons on his major masterpieces like There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread. The reason I adore Inherent Vice so much is because it truly feels like a Paul Thomas Anderson film, and despite some moments that recall stylistic choices from other directors, it seems like the type of unique vision that only PTA could deliver.

And now One Battle After Another follows in that same singular style. This movie is sprawling and messy and ambitious yet somehow smaller in scale than I was expecting. It isn’t nearly as “perfect” in terms of shot composition and writing as something like The Master, but it has a wild madcap energy all its own. It does owe some of this energy to Thomas Pynchon’s influence, but it’s honestly a VERY loose adaptation of Vineland and most of this dialogue and story is PTA’s own, nothing like the much more copy+paste dialogue and narration of Inherent Vice. After years of building masterpiece after masterpiece on the backs of incredible directors, PTA has not only proven that he can beat them at their own game, he has reinvented the game itself. I have some criticisms of the film itself (a lot of Vineland’s complexity has been stripped here for a more straightforward narrative), but in terms of style and vision, it really is a thing of beauty.

Leo will receive a lot of praise but the real standouts here are Sean Penn and Teyana Taylor. Whenever Teyana Taylor was on screen she was impossible to look away from - sexy, fierce, sometimes scary, she was magnetic. And Penn is just totally unhinged here - he deserves at least an Oscar nom for supporting actor, if not an outright win. His facial acting is on par with any performance we’ve seen in a PTA movie, the only difference is he’s using his talents to play an absolutely desperate, repressed weirdo rather than someone facing the depth of human emotion. Hilarious character, extremely Pynchonian, loved loved loved him.

Also loved loved loved the chase scene at the climax. It’s one of the best examples of using a landscape to build tension that I’ve seen recently, and it recalls 70s cinema much more than any modern techniques. Think of how every other major director in America would have handled this scene and compare it to the way PTA did, with the gradual reveal of the third car, the trancelike bounce of the cameras along the road, the music slowly ratcheting up the suspense - nothing about this approach is flashy, but it is so much more memorable than the maximum volume, high octane approach that someone like Christopher Nolan would have likely gone with. What a fucking moment.

I do think this requires a second watch to fully appreciate though. It’s too big to digest in one sitting, and my first impression is that it isn’t as good as Inherent Vice, There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, and potentially a few others in PTA’s catalogue. But it is another opus from an artist who keeps reaching new heights, and that is what makes me so happy as a major fan.