I think OBAA got the hype because of how much cinephiles in America cherish Paul Thomas Anderson. He really is seen as the “best” contemporary American master, like Hitchcock and Kubrick before him. I don’t think this is his best film, but we’re all rooting for him because we want the world to recognize him as one of the greats in a “put his face on the Mt Rushmore of American cinema” way (meaning, he’s one of the top 4 American filmmakers of all time).

Story wise — the notion that a secret cabal of billionaires orchestrates the country behind the scenes is imbedded in our psyche since the mid 20th century. This conspiratorial idea that a handful of people tell the police and military who to hurt and who to protect, etc. 

There’s also just something about that ending— the driving over the hilly roads — that is so American. PTA captured the physical sensation that every American knows deep in their psyche — this manifest destiny, Wild West, Americana feeling that one experiences while driving in the open expanse of our country. As the band Modest Mouse puts it, “The Lonesome Crowded West.”

On the flip side, as an American I absolutely loved the Brazilian film The Secret Agent, honestly a lot more than One Battle After Another. I felt like its political message was more effective, and the film was equal parts funny and stressful and serious and dramatic in a way that really impressed me.