I wasn’t persuaded by Douthat’s somewhat negative review of One Battle After Another, but after so much critical writing (already) on the film, I want to see it again. I’m convinced, at least for now, that the film’s politics are far more ambivalent than many take them to be; that the obvious signifiers function like a Rorschach test; that the ’70s-style depiction of the 2030s is purposeful, not lazy; that the Pynchonian humor works; and that PTA knows what he’s doing. But the film deserves multiple viewings before a final judgment.

Oh, and while I enjoyed Bill Simmons and Wesley Morris’s conversation about the film, I couldn’t believe they didn’t bring up either the character of the daughter or Benicio del Toro’s character. Neither race nor gender nor “revolutionary politics” can be adequately discussed in relation to the film’s story or themes without talking about Willa and Sergio!