Conservatives Take Aim at ‘One Battle After Another’: “Year’s Most Irresponsible Movie”

Paul Thomas Anderson’s propulsive, nearly three-hour loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland starring Leonardo DiCaprio has been the rare grown-up drama that’s drawn enormous critical praise, high audience scores and solid box office — crossing the $100 million mark worldwide to score the biggest opening of Anderson’s career.

Given that the film is also intensely political — telling the tale of a burned out revolutionary (DiCaprio) who endeavors to save his daughter (Chase Infiniti) from a white nationalist military officer (Sean Penn) — it’s perhaps surprising there hasn’t been more noise so far from those on the right. The film opens with a celebratory raid on an ICE facility to free detainees, and shows government agents coldly executing unarmed suspects and sending an undercover agent into a peaceful protest to throw a Molotov cocktail to justify increased force.