Slate Daily Feed Culture Gabfest: One Banger After Another Edition
Oct 1, 2025
This week, Sam Adams, a senior writer at Slate, and Isaac Butler, an esteemed theater critic, join the discussion. They dive into Paul Thomas Anderson's provocative film, One Battle After Another, analyzing its mix of stoner comedy and serious themes. The trio also explores the innovative family comedy Long Story Short, examining its emotional shifts and narrative style. Finally, they tackle Broadway's economic woes, discussing the challenges of flipped musicals and the rising costs of production. It’s a lively chat packed with cultural insights!
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
PTA's Political Action Fantasia
- One Battle After Another is PTA's biggest, most crowd-pleasing film mixing action, comedy, and political fantasia.
- It updates Pynchon's Vineland into a near-present revolutionary allegory about repression and white supremacy.
Phone Scene That Sets The Tone
- The show plays a long phone-scene clip with DiCaprio's bleary ex-revolutionary failing a secret passcode.
- The gag highlights the movie's blend of slapstick and menace and Leo's corkscrew comedic performance.
Stoner Comedy Meets Grand Statement
- The film blends PTA's stoner-comedy energy with big-statement filmmaking to create both pleasure and provocation.
- Its manipulation of time and montage makes political themes feel metaphorical rather than historical.
