Paul Thomas Anderson On ‘One Battle After Another’ Criticism
“One Battle After Another” was one of the most-talked-about films of Sunday’s Academy Awards — though not entirely because it took home several of the night’s biggest awards.
During his post-Oscars press conference, HuffPost asked writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson about the criticism over how his film portrays Black women — particularly Teyana Taylor’s character, Perfidia Beverly Hills.
Anderson had not yet publicly addressed the issue during the film’s awards season run — which concluded with six Oscars, including for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Anderson. But on Sunday, he acknowledged that he knows “a little bit about that critique.”
“I know that Teyana has talked about it a lot,” Anderson remarked, referring to previous interviews in which the Best Supporting Actress nominee discussed strong audience reactions to her character.
“I know that we have the portrayal of many different characters — in particular, her character, who is so flawed and, unfortunately, makes decisions that are detrimental to the revolution that she’s trying to fight,” he added.
While the director didn’t explicitly address the racial politics in his film when asked, he noted that the matter is “complicated.”
“We always knew that we were trying to make something complicated,” Anderson said. “We knew that we weren’t making something that was heroic, and we needed to lean into that. And we needed to own the fact that this woman was suffering not only from postpartum depression, but she had issues of her own that she hadn’t really reconciled with.”
As far as Perfidia’s antihero trajectory, which has been mildly criticized compared to other aspects, Anderson explained how it can be “a very dangerous thing” when someone like her revolutionary character starts out wanting to change the world, “but you start to kind of become selfish and you read your own reviews.”
“The point of it is to set up a story of Willa, the next generation,” he added, referencing Perfidia’s daughter, who is played by newcomer Chase Infiniti. “What happens when your parents, who are damaged and have handed quite a difficult history to you, how do you manage that?”
“That’s our story,” Anderson concluded, “and our story is in Chase and her evolution, in terms of the generational aspect. To try to do better.”
Anderson’s response follows months of intense debate surrounding “One Battle After Another,” which has continued even after the film’s big Oscar wins.
When the movie first premiered, I wrote that while the politically charged action-dramedy is undeniably entertaining, its racial dynamics at times weaken the storytelling, particularly in areas that could have benefited from deeper exploration. That includes Perfidia’s struggles with motherhood and postpartum depression, which, to some viewers, felt overshadowed by scenes that frame her through sexual objectification.
And with little clarification from Anderson himself — who sidestepped questions about race and politics in his film throughout the entire awards season — it seems audiences will continue to stew over these contentious aspects of the movie whenever the discussion resurfaces.
Elsewhere in his post-Oscars interview, Anderson tried to dodge a question over how his Oscar-winning film reflects the current times and where we’re headed — “I thought we were supposed to be partying,” he joked — before acknowledging how “One Battle After Another” ultimately parallels “what’s happening in the news every day.”
“It obviously reflects what’s happening in the world,” he added. “In terms of where it’s going, I don’t know, but I know that the end of our movie is our hero, Willa, heading off to continue to fight against evil forces. And I think, like I said in my speech, bring, at least, common sense and decency back into fashion.”
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