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A version of this story appeared in Esquire\u2019s entertainment newsletter, the Cliff-Hanger. Sign up here<\/a> to receive weekly criticism of the movie or television show of the moment shipped directly to your in-box.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure you can relate to this: Few things in life annoy me more than having to remember all my passwords. I could spill sauce all over my shirt and still hold my temper\u2014but nothing infuriates me more than going through \u201cI forgot my password\u201d emails just to create yet another login that I\u2019ll forget again. So you could imagine how much fun I was having in the theater watching One Battle After Another<\/a>. Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a>\u2019s character screams into a pay phone until his eyes bulge out his sockets because he can\u2019t remember his goddamn password during a life-or-death emergency. Leo? I have never felt more seen.<\/p>\n That\u2019s often the case with Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s films<\/a>. He\u2019s one of my favorite directors, in part because he gravitates toward these short-tempered and out-of-the-loop characters to drive his stories. In Punch-Drunk Love, Adam Sandler does his best pre\u2013Uncut Gems dramatic rage routine. Daniel Day-Lewis can barely stand mild annoyances in Phantom Thread, and Joaquin Phoenix<\/a>\u2019s Inherent Vice PI stumbles around a noir that simply takes care of itself.<\/p>\n Thanks to Anderson\u2019s team-up with DiCaprio, One Battle After Another has a solid shot at going down as the best movie of the year. At the very least, it\u2019s certainly proving to be the most controversial.<\/p>\n In the film, which debuted this past weekend, DiCaprio plays a stoned and paranoid ex-revolutionary named Bob Ferguson who has checked out of the fight. However, America isn\u2019t done with him yet. The corrupt and relentless Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn) returns from Bob\u2019s past to kidnap his daughter (played by newcomer Chase Infiniti), forcing Bob back into the action.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, it makes for one of the funniest turns in DiCaprio\u2019s career\u2014and one of Anderson\u2019s best films. You might ask yourself: What could be so controversial about that? Well, I\u2019ll break it down.<\/p>\n Outside of One Battle After Another\u2019s gags with DiCaprio and old passwords, the majority of the film deals with an out-of-control American military machine hell-bent on ridding the world of any resistance to its authority. Sound familiar? So while Colonel Lockjaw destroys DiCaprio\u2019s seemingly peaceful life, characters played by the bombastic Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, and Benicio del Toro continue the fight against immigration raids and other deadly abuses of power.<\/p>\n For the most part, critics so far seem to agree: One Battle After Another is a poignant film that balances Hollywood humor, action, and real-world fears. NPR and The New York Times heralded the film as a revolutionary Best Picture contender that could dominate the sociopolitical conversation for months. On the other side, Fox News panned the film<\/a> as a \u201c#Resistance wet dream.\u201d<\/p>\n And yet there\u2019s another conversation happening about One Battle After Another that is seemingly coming from no definitive side of the aisle at all. All over TikTok this weekend, viewers were asking\u2014quite simply\u2014why the film spends so much time on the 50-year-old white guy who is lost amid the madness? Shouldn\u2019t the film focus on the powerful characters who were fighting while he gave up?<\/p>\n Well, DiCaprio\u2019s role is a bit deeper than mere comic relief. His journey throughout the film is the same as the audiences\u2019, as we\u2019re clued in on the fight that Regina Hall and Benicio del Toro\u2019s characters have been fighting for decades. As Anderson explained in Esquire\u2019s latest cover story<\/a>, \u201cNo one can outrun what\u2019s inevitable, which for him is to be a father and to have another generation come up from behind.\u201d Bob Ferguson eventually reenters the political maelstrom because that\u2019s what this movie is arguing for as well. When shit hits the fan and Colonel Lockjaw and his white-nationalist cronies bust down your door, we\u2019re going to need everyone who thought that they had the privilege to check out to finally come to their senses.<\/p>\n
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