One Battle After Another

Osmosis Jones

• Regarding Lockjaw's final scene:

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I like that he survives the assassination attempt for a few reasons:

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1. We get to see his dream, the ideal life of a Christmas Adventurer….and it's as sad and boring as you could ever possibly imagine; a little corner office with a great view of a motorway. And it's such a dream for him that he returns to them even after they try to kill him (granted we don't know if he knows they were behind the attempt). He never really fits in with the rest of the Adventurers, they're all leaders in black tie while he's a foot soldier who does what he's told and dresses like a child at their aunt's wedding…he dies still desperate for their approval.

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2. Lockjaw surviving means Bob finding Willa is imperative, otherwise she's stranded in the desert and Lockjaw is on his way, likely to find her.

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3. "Semen Demon" got the biggest laugh in the theatre and we wouldn't have that without the final scene 😆

p to the e

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869546#Comment_123869546

"Semen Demon" and the stiff collared, white supremacist saying "Jungle Pussy" were such highlights.

homerun_homer

What a great film! Saw this in the Odeon fake-IMAX and it was brilliantly loud. Would love to see the 70mm print but unlikely I'll get that chance.

Did you smash it

did anyone have a problem with it being based around something that has never happened in the USA since once in the 1970s; a radical left terrorist group? Or just me?

the movie is very well made and very well acted but the story just isn’t strong or believable

Apothic_Red

IIt was great, the energy is off the charts.

Proper 4.5 stars

bassy

A pure crock of shite unfollows straight away so I don't have to see your BS replies

ancapailldorcha

This just did nothing for me. It feels very, very well made and the performances are all great, particularly Penn's. I can't find a single fault or anything. I just wasn't interested in it at all.

MrStuffins

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123872374#Comment_123872374

Were you sitting in front of me in the cinema?

During my viewing, there was a couple in their late 30s or early 40s who yapped the whole way through about how much they were not enjoying the movie. At one point eh guy said out loud "I'm sick of this movie"

How can someone get to that age and still not know how to act appropriately in a cinema? And what makes them think anyone cares if they think the movie is sh*te?

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123872987#Comment_123872987

I had similar though not nearly as bad.

I think covid just made people a lot more inconsiderate. I see it in a lot of places outside the cinema but it's so easy for scumbags to ruin the experience now.

MrStuffins

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123865044#Comment_123865044

Then you will definitely be a fan of the music video "Fade" by Kanye West

howdydoo83

Upped my rating after 2nd viewing on the gigantic IMAX in Manchester.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123871901#Comment_123871901

Can't say that bothered me too much… I'd say it was still firmly based in real groups (like The Panther 21, Weather Underground, the Black Liberation Army, and M19CO etc, the latter two of which did operate until the 80s at least), but with the years fudged enough so they could connect the story to present day. Since it's clearly more running on the vibes of the source material of Pynchon's book rather than trying to recount actual past events, I was very happy to just go with it and enjoy it for what it is.

Ronanc1

Great little bit of physical acting by Penn here in the scenes when he's out of his combat fatigues and suited - either when going to meet Perfidia or the Christmas Adventurers. And he tromps along with all the physicality of someone clearly uncomfortable out of there own element and in a different skin versus the leonine and dangerous air when suited and booted for combat. Certainly agree with Kermode's assessment where he highlighted the frenetic almost "Too Much" scoring by Greenwood but with it just enough coherence to tie together a really busy "Go go go" kind of feel.

NIMAN

Magnolia is still PTAs best film.

artvanderlay

I hated this movie and left after around an hour and a half. There were no characters to care about and no plot. Sean Penn seemed to be the only one putting any effort in. Leo's performance was embarrassing. Cinematography and music were awful too. I'm done with PTA. He's gotten more and more pretentious as his career has progressed. The warning signs were there from the frog shower in Magnolia and the harmonium in Punch Drunk Love. He peaked with Boogie Nights, which was a ripoff of Scorsese/Goodfellas anyways, and seems to have disappeared up his own arse in recent times. Just my opinion though :)

eastie17

I thought it was great, no idea who the director is, good 2.5 hours plus of entertainment

MisterAnarchy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123866118#Comment_123866118

Perhaps Brett Easton Ellis' reasoning might be plausible

https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2025/10/9/bret-easton-ellis-says-critics-only-love-one-battle-after-another-for-its-politics-its-not-a-very-good-movie

“It’s kind of shocking to see these kind of accolades for — I’m sorry, it’s a not-very-good movie — because of it’s political ideology,” Ellis said. “And it’s so obvious that is what they’re responding to, why it’s considered a masterpiece, the greatest film of the decade, the greatest film ever made. Because it really aligns with this kind of leftist sensibility.”

There’s a liberal mustiness to this movie that already feels very dated by October 2025. Very dated. And it just doesn’t read the room. You know, it reads a tiny corner of the room, but it does not read what is going on in America.”

artvanderlay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123899608#Comment_123899608

Pretty spot on!

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123899608#Comment_123899608

It's an entertaining movie with good acting. The politics of the leftist group is displayed as pretty pathetic, with members willing to back stab each other so the accolades are not due to the politics in the movie.

It's definitely not pro anarchy.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123898718#Comment_123898718

It's hard to judge a movie when you only watch half of it. I thought the first half was much weaker so maybe you would have enjoyed the overall movie if you had stayed.

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123899900#Comment_123899900

not sure that’s a commonly held view of the movie. I think the Paris group are shown to be a pretty bad ass collection of figures sticking it to the man and portrayed sympatheticly even when one betrays the other.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123899914#Comment_123899914

I'm not sure what the commonly held view of the group is either. The group have three main members on screen, two become traitors the other a stoned out useless dad. Del toro is the only competent character and he is not a member of the group.

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123899921#Comment_123899921

I think you’re meant to root for the group. You’re certainly not meant to root for their adversaries. I just didn’t really root for either. It’s a very strange movie if the viewer isn’t meant to root for “us” in an us vs them movie.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123899931#Comment_123899931

Not all movies are us vs them scenarios. Some of the best movies have grey characters that some of the audience may admire while others disagree with.

Anyway I enjoyed the movie even though I thought both the leftist group and racist group were pretty pathetic.

artvanderlay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123899904#Comment_123899904

I stayed for well over half of it :) I wanted to leave earlier but I kept staying hoping it would improve! It didn't. If I was watching it at home, I'd have turned it off after 10-20 minutes. As I've gotten older, I have become very impatient with films that don't hook me quickly. Move on to the next one asap. I especially can't spent time with characters I don't want to be around, that are not likeable, empathetic, interesting or entertaining. I didn't give a damn about any of the characters in this film, so I bailed.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123899972#Comment_123899972

Fair enough, I wouldn't try to change your mind about the movie.

artvanderlay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123899979#Comment_123899979

Thanks. Let me have my stupid opinions. They are all I have! :) Glad you enjoyed it.

johnny_ultimate

IMO Willa is where the film’s political sympathies really lie (though sensei is a hero too :)). I found the movie’s ending really hopeful and inspiring, despite it being an often quite cynical and satirical piece of work - that despite the failures of her parents and their movement, she is still inspired to fight for what she believes is right. She represents hope and a brighter future where her parents failed to fully live by their principles (though naturally their portrayal in the film is more multi-layered than that).

Frankly, Easton Ellis’ take reads as the same old tired reactionary and emptily provocative crap he’s been peddling for years now. Buddy, you write a film a quarter as good as this one and I’ll be more inclined to listen.

MrStuffins

One of the issues a movie like this has in 2025 is that most people are so entrenched in the culture war that they are automatically "triggered" with an opinion on it's politics one way or another whether they like it or not.

It's clearly highly satirical. But apart from that, we shouldn't be fooled into thinking the main characters are pure heroes. They are not. One of the main plot points centres around one of them commiting a cold-blooded murder of a working man, not a political enemy and certaiinly not in the process of one of their political raids.

One group are murderers, the other are white supremacists.

At the very centre of the movie is the one apolitical "victim" of the entire circumstance, the daughter. She's a product of all of the political chaos around her. Her mother, her father, those hunting Leo, everyone……. she had absolutlely nothing to do with it and only wanted to be a normal teenager hanging out with her friends and going to dances, yet she has no choice.

There's an idea that the movie is "political" and, of course, the most sensitive these days will cry about it (a few years ago the "snowflakes" were mostly from one side, now they're definitely mostly from the other side) but, to me at least, a large part of the movie is actually about those of us in the middle that, no matter what we try to do or no matter how much we try to stay away for it, those around us will always try to drag us into their political sh*te and there's no escape.

p to the e

I took as a look at the broad and movable spectrum of politics and how they might relate and/or differ from one another.

We have two opposing ends of the political spectrum, in LockJaw and Beverly Hills, destroying everything in their paths to get what they want, abandoning their political beliefs at the drop of a hat and literally joining together.

We have the extreme ends in the Christmas Adventurers and the French 75 and how farcical they are.

We have the DiCaprio's character who would have been considered extreme left in his day but now that he's older he has moved more centre (e.g. use of "they" pronouns, "triggering" the guy on the phone with his "micro aggressions").

Then we have Willa and Del Toro's character who seem more interested in caring for people than political causes.

And then there's the native American having no problem being a contract killer but changing his mind about Willa when faced with racist soldiers.

I thought there was a lot in it and I'd happily read some more write ups or reviews on it.