Right here’s a well timed thought experiment.
What if director Paul Thomas Anderson dropped a far-Proper film into this yr’s awards season combine?
The undertaking, dubbed “One Battle After One other,” options alt-Proper radicals battling it out with authorities officers throughout a Democrat administration.
The protesters ignite incendiary units round a middle the place January 6 defendants are being held in solitary confinement, even those that merely entered the Capitol through the “revolt.” Just a few milled round exterior the constructing that day, by no means becoming a member of the riot.
J6 prisoner @JohnStrandUSA describes the 4 months of “hellish” solitary confinement our govt put him in: “It was so darkish and the window was so slim I couldn’t see daylight…I couldn’t see these folks, however the inmates have been savage, like animals, screaming, yelling continuously.” pic.twitter.com/dV4yvtpoeS
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) January 12, 2025
Some radicals within the movie detonate bombs in authorities buildings, not sure if any persons are nonetheless inside. They don’t appear to care.
One radical kills a safety officer in a heated second, serving to a number of J6 activists escape within the course of. She’s a heroic determine, sultry and uncompromising in her beliefs. A triumphant picture of her firing a machine gun whereas very pregnant causes a stir.
Her beta male beau (Leonardo DiCaprio) can solely hope to maintain up along with her revolutionary pluck.
By all accounts, the couple and their colleagues characterize the movie’s difficult however unabashed heroes. In the event that they ever remorse their murderous methods, it isn’t captured on display screen.
Anderson’s visceral filmmaking has by no means been higher. Sean Penn delivers a blistering flip as a Democrat-appointed colonel who will cease at nothing to seize DiCaprio’s on-screen daughter.
The storytelling is intense. The performances are all above reproach. It’s alternately scary, humorous and ripped from at present’s headlines. Oh, and the movie relentlessly paints Democratic officers as racist, hateful and, typically, murderous in nature.
Would that movie’s Rotten Tomatoes rating stand at 96 p.c “contemporary?” What if its launch coincided with real-world violence that eerily mirrored the movie’s messaging?
Uncertain, at finest.
But this precise premise has the true “One Battle After One other” hitting the RT bullseye.
Critics are fawning over the movie, suggesting the Greatest Image race unofficially ended with its debut. Commerce publications like Selection and The Hollywood Reporter are cranking out tales in regards to the film, pushing its consciousness issue so far as it’s going to go.
Selection cries that the movie may “rule the cultural dialog,” giving the time period “wish-casting” an excessive close-up.
Why wouldn’t this alternate actuality movie earn related reward to the true factor? Aren’t movie critics supposed to guage a movie on its deserves, not any political ideology?
This critic gave “One Battle After One other” a certified advice, dubbing it morally repugnant however impressively assembled.
The true “One Battle After One other” is a critical movie that deserves critical consideration. It shouldn’t be punished or canceled resulting from its incendiary nature or proximity to real-world violence.
Free speech calls for we let the movie get a good public listening to, which by all accounts is going on proper now. Whether or not Anderson’s movie is accountable storytelling, given the tenor of the occasions, is a debate for an additional time.
However let’s not child ourselves. The movie’s fawning reception comes with excessive caveats, and the story’s hard-Left posturing explains precisely why.