Many critics have hailed Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” as a masterpiece — a film that, in their words, “captures the zeitgeist” of a politically divided America. However, not everyone’s drinking the Kool-Aid.
Bret Easton Ellis, the counterculture author of “American Psycho” and “Less Than Zero,” used his latest Bret Easton Ellis Podcast episode to call BS on what he sees as the industry’s overzealous response to Anderson’s latest.
Ellis, who’s no stranger to controversy, made it clear that he’s a longtime fan of PTA. In fact, he called “There Will Be Blood” “maybe the best film of this century.” But when it comes to “One Battle After Another,” the novelist isn’t impressed — either with the film or the acclaim surrounding it.
It’s kind of shocking to see these kind of accolades for — I’m sorry, it’s not a very good movie — because of its political ideology, and it’s so obvious that’s what they’re responding to, why it’s considered a masterpiece, the greatest film of the decade, the greatest film ever made. Because it really aligns with this kind of leftist sensibility.
Ellis went so far as to predict that “One Battle After Another” will soon be seen as “a kind of musty relic of the post-Kamala Harris era — that thing everyone gathers around and pretends is so fantastic and so great when it really isn’t, just to make a point.”
Still, the author isn’t blind to the film’s merits. He admitted to enjoying certain sequences — particularly Bob’s attempts to connect with the revolutionary underground — and praised its “gorgeous cinematography.” But he argued that critics on both the left and right are misreading what the film actually says.
He also took aim at The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis, who called the film “important.” Ellis fired back:
No, it is not. It has really not read the room. It has not read the room at all about what’s going on in America.
Ellis concluded his takedown with a line that perfectly sums up his frustration:
There’s a liberal mustiness to this movie that already feels very dated by October 2025. Very dated. And it just doesn’t read the room. You know, it reads a tiny corner of the room, but it does not read what is going on in America.
Whether you agree with him or not, it’s classic Ellis — sharp, bold, and completely unmoved by the hype. We need more voices like his in film criticism, not less.
I should note that Ellis is good friends with Quentin Tarantino, who was spotted over the weekend at his own New Beverly Cinema watching PTA’s latest. Onlookers mentioned that he was taking notes during the screening. No word yet on whether he actually liked “One Battle After Another.”