One Battle After Another (2025)

Very late to the party, but I finally got to watch One Battle After Another. Meaty and scintillating, this film daringly and gracefully addresses the culturally zeitgeist that is our current political anxiety. It does not have all the answers, because no one does, but the blunt and gentle tone still makes it both steeling and comforting at the same time. All the praise feels duly deserved. 

When Junglepussy took a gun, stood on a desk during a bank robbery and said “this is what power looks like,” she did hold power in that moment. But power gained through violence and intimidation is fragile. Perfidia made sure to pass along the lesson she learned after a life of regret to Willa: Be happy and have love first, and then change the world. That message is crystal clear. I only hope it is not lost on us that we also have to show up. Complacency put Willa and Bob’s life both in imminent peril and this film stayed in the weeds with us to remind us that revolution is hard. First do no harm, but if you want to actually change the world, you have to drive that three and a half hours (or take the BART) to Oakland in the rain.