One Battle After Another
The Spin
Right narrative
"One Battle After Another" is a reckless, irresponsible film that romanticizes left-wing terrorism and demonizes law enforcement. Anderson's adaptation glorifies Antifa-style violence, depicting revolutionaries who bomb buildings and attack ICE facilities as heroes while painting all government officials as racist monsters. The film's release, so soon after Charlie Kirk's assassination, made its celebration of political violence especially reprehensible. It's pure left-wing agitprop masquerading as art, complete with absurd white supremacist caricatures and a morally bankrupt ending that encourages the next generation toward revolutionary terrorism.
Left narrative
PTA delivers a timely masterpiece in "One Battle After Another," holding a mirror to America’s fascist drift without even naming MAGA. The film vividly depicts ICE's cruelty and the white-supremacist violence under Trump while celebrating underground networks that protect vulnerable immigrants. DiCaprio and Taylor shine as committed revolutionaries, their moral complexity anchoring the chaos. Anderson’s technical mastery heightens the stakes, turning high-octane action into a meditation on resistance, intergenerational trauma and the courage required to safeguard the vulnerable, ultimately offering both righteous anger and hope for collective resistance.
Narrative C
“One Battle After Another” turns a serious national issue — rising right-wing authoritarianism and systemic attacks on immigrants led by people like Stephen Miller — into a spectacle, exaggerating left-wing vigilantes for comic effect. The French 75’s over-the-top raids and stunts trivialize oppression, while cartoonish villains and chaotic pacing undercut the film’s political stakes. By making resistance a thrilling caper rather than a matter of survival or solidarity, Anderson’s satire lacks enough bite to meaningfully confront contemporary fascism, leaving the audience entertained but distanced from the real consequences of hate-driven policy.
Establishment-critical narrative
“One Battle After Another” lays bare Hollywood’s entrenched ideological monoculture. The film itself is competently made, but the rapturous critical response reveals far more than the movie does. Critics and awards bodies celebrate it not for surprise or insight, but because it flatters their worldview — one where America is a fascist police state and dissenting voters are moral villains. Whether the film works ultimately depends on politics: if you share the industry’s assumptions, it feels profound. If not, it plays as polished, predictable propaganda dressed up as prestige cinema.
Public Figures
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