Review: ‘One Battle After Another’ — A Timely and Timeless Triumph

At this point in his career, practically anybody with a passing familiarity with modern film is aware of Paul Thomas Anderson and his consistently terrific work. Almost all of his films stand out among the finest to emerge from Hollywood in the time since his career began in the mid-1990s, with the director having left behind a seriously impressive string of masterpieces including Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, Phantom Thread, and, my personal favourite, There Will Be Blood. Nobody has ever doubted that Anderson is a fantastic director — the proof has been vividly visible (edible?) in the pudding since Anderson’s second feature released in 1997 (his first film Hard Eight is sturdy, but Boogie Nights is where Anderson really started to become the director we know today).

To me, Anderson’s one and only slip up came in 2021 with his film Licorice Pizza — a decidedly relaxed affair in comparison to the majority of the director’s work which lacked the poise and specificity in both tone and narrative/themes that the rest of his body of work has in spades. Leaving the cinema two days after that film released, I recall a confused…