When Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” was released last week to near consensus of acclaim, many American critics called it a “defining film of the moment.” A film about issues like immigration and racial strife and radicalized politics could be only something identifiable to a modern audience.

For me, when I see topics like this, I see something regrettably timeless — which makes “One Battle After Another” important not for what it says about 2025 but what it says about the collective weight of American history. That's much trickier and more important. The fact that the film is able to comment on these issues while being incredibly entertaining is nothing short of a miracle.

The plot, which is critical to understanding the themes, cannot be described without some revelat

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