‘One Battle After Another,’ Paul Thomas Anderson and Cinema’s Political Playbook

Feeling Of Falling Oil, Ink and Inkjet on Paper 14 x 17 inches

With One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson rewrites the playbook for political cinema

By Christian Lorentzen
Artwork by Matt McCormick

It’s fortuitous when the zeitgeist and a filmmaker’s long-gestating vision intersect, and in 2025 that was the case with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. The last decade and a half has seen no shortage of political protest and violence...