Paul Schrader Has Mixed Feelings About ‘One Battle After Another'

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” — the $140–$150 million political dramedy that opened to just $22 million domestic and $48 million worldwide — didn’t dominate commercially the way its glowing reviews suggested it might. Then again, did we really expect an R-rated, 161-minute, hard-to-describe film to make that much money? I didn’t.

Puck’s Matt Belloni has an interesting overview. Belloni calls the numbers “weak” despite it being PTA’s best debut yet. The performance, he says, is comparable to Mickey 17, another pricey auteur project that bombed earlier this year.

However, the difference might be in strong reviews, an A Cinemascore, Leonardo DiCaprio’s star power, and Oscar buzz which, best case scenario, could give PTA’s film steadier legs, but the likeliest outcome is a box office path similar to “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which topped out at $158M globally.

Regardless, Paul Schrader has once again turned to Facebook to drop some brutally honest thoughts on current cinema — this time weighing in on Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest.

Schrader mentions that while the film represents “filmmaking at level A+,” he personally couldn’t connect with its central performances. “Try as I might, I couldn’t muster up an ounce of empathy for Leo DiCaprio or Sean Penn,” Schrader wrote, adding: “I kept waiting for them to die.”

Still, he did throw a backhanded compliment Penn’s way, calling his work “a masterclass in peacock acting.” Ultimately, what impressed Schrader most wasn’t the characters, but Anderson’s sheer craft: “What held me in my seat for the better part of two hours was PT Anderson’s Joy of Filmmaking.”

As usual, Schrader refuses to pull punches in his weekly Pauline Kael-esque capsule review. His comments may ruffle feathers, and I do seem to like the film more than he did, but his filmmaker’s eye always offers an interesting counterview to the critical consensus.