Paul Thomas Anderson’s Impeccable Timing

Somewhere between Assata Shakur’s passing in Cuba and Zohran Mamdani’s emphatic victory for mayor of New York City, I went to see a movie I kept hearing about: PTA’s “One Battle After Another.” 

There’s been a lot of “this is the best movie of the year” reaction to this film already. (Wesley Morris had my favorite podcast on it, and Jenna Wortham rounded up a lot of the salient criticism and vibes in her post.) I’m late to that particular party and don’t find the horse-race compelling in a time when most Hollywood films are so weak anyway. All I’ll say is that every PTA movie is worth your time and your attention, and that he couldn’t have picked a better time for this one. 

There’s a lot going on in “Battle”: high-octane action sequences, sharp political commentary about the U.S. government’s self-destructive pursuit of fascism, an artful stories-within-stories artifice. (I wanted entire movies about several strands in “Battle,” including one about the “underground railroad” Benicio del Toro’s character ran to shelter Latino immigrants from ICE, and another about the Black revolutionary matriarchs of central character Perfidia Beverly Hills, whose far-too-brief appearance glued me to my seat.) But first and foremost it’s about a father and a daughter, about how a father failed during a utopian revolution, and what happens when his failures roll first downhill toward, and then straight over, the child of that revolution. 

This is where PTA’s perfect timing comes in: It feels awfully important right now to reflect on how we might do revolution better this time. On how to do it in a way that doesn’t involve devouring our children, or endless infighting, short-term thinking, and the pursuit of power for power’s sake. So far, I’m seeing a lot of the same mistakes from the elders, which means that the children will need both exceptional foresight and courage.

It’s going to be an interesting winter.

One final note on “Battle.” At the Secret Meetings of Black People*, the subject of Perfidia Beverly Hills has been very controversial. I get why: In terms of her sexuality, Perfidia is basically a Blaxploitation character come to life, and (spoiler alert) she’s also the worst possible revolutionary – a snitch. Both of those things have made her a lightning rod for heated conversations about respectability politics and How Black Women Are Supposed to Take Care of the Community. In 2025, I wish we could move past those outdated discussions, but I agree that Perfidia is a missed opportunity, and some of the failure lies with the source material. 

With “Battle,” PTA pulled off his own heist: he’s got a big-budget movie from Warner Brothers (!) that’s centered on Black militant women. Unfortunately, it’s still based on Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland,” not the autobiographies of Assata Shakur or Angela Davis. For all of her political rhetoric, Perfidia’s deeper motivations remain opaque. We know that she enjoys shooting guns, having lots of sex and being selfish. We know that she’s really attractive to white guys. Ok. And who is she beyond those qualities? Those may have been political statements for Black women in 1970s movies, but 2025 is a different beast. 

One day I’ll see a Black militant woman on screen who not only shoots guns but uses the kind of language Assata did: “I believe in sunshine. In windmills and waterfalls, tricycles and rocking chairs. And I believe that seeds grow into sprouts. And sprouts grow into trees. And trees grow into forests.” (From Affirmations)

When that day comes, I’ll know the revolution is truly here. 

*The Secret Meetings of Black People are on the Internet these days, just like everything else

D’Angelo Forever

See you next month!

Caille