One Battle After Another reviewed: sensational and hysterical take on Pynchon’s counterculture yarn
Dissenting voices face their own challenges Once upon a time it felt like Hollywood had a monopoly on channeling the dream life of America, what Norman Mailer called “that subterranean river of untapped, ferocious, lonely, and romantic desires, that concentration of ecstasy and violence”. Today that river is barely below the surface – it gushes right out of the sewers and straight down main street, via the relentless torrents of social media. [embedded content] Dissenting voices face their own challenges. Networks are pulling talk show hosts, newspapers are firing columnists, and distributors are so shy of antagonising MAGA that films like A24’s The Sixth documentary, about the attempted 2021 insurrection, mysteriously vanish from schedules. Advertisement Nevertheless a distinctive Trump II cinema is emerging. This year’s best films – Nickel Boys, Sinners, 28 Years Later – and even some of its not so good – the scattershot Eddington, the portentous The Brutalist, the hokey Superman – are in their various ways engaged in contesting or reframing the ongoing collective nightmare. A film about terror and conspiracy, betrayal and redemption Now Paul Thomas Anderson, who for thirty years has been the brightest hope of liberal American filmmaking, the one Gen X director… Read More →
