The Big Picture ‘One Battle After Another’ Is a Modern Masterpiece, With Leonardo DiCaprio and Paul Thomas Anderson!
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Sep 26, 2025 This episode features Paul Thomas Anderson, the acclaimed filmmaker behind One Battle After Another, and Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, who stars in the film. They dive into the timely relevance of their film and the intricacies of its long development. DiCaprio discusses his collaborative experience with Anderson, while Chris Ryan analyzes the movie's emotional depth and cinematography. Topics like a father-daughter dynamic, political themes, and Oscar predictions add layers to an engaging conversation about this modern cinematic masterpiece.
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PTA Merges Spectacle With Intimacy
- One Battle After Another blends blockbuster motion with PTA's intimate humanism to make a modern political fable.
- The film balances sustained action set pieces with deep father-daughter emotional stakes to broaden PTA's canvas.
Prologue Frames The Aftermath
- The film opens as a prologue centered on Perfidia and a radical group's deeds, grounding the stakes before time-jumping.
- That prologue makes the later father-daughter story feel like the fallout of past revolutionary action.
PTA's Personal Roots In Fatherhood
- Sean, Amanda, and Chris note the film is a father-daughter story inspired by PTA's own family life and influences.
- Paul draws on experiences with his kids and friends to depict a white dad parenting biracial daughters and the hair-care detail comes from Maya Rudolph's family story.
