One Battle After Another has amassed universal acclaim, not to mention praise from Taylor Swift and myself, ahead of an awards season that’s sure to be kind to the latest from Magnolia and There Will Be Blood filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. But in the eyes of Bret Easton Ellis, a self-described “fan” of PTA’s past work, the Leonardo DiCaprio and Chase Infiniti-led title should be considered a “lower mid-tier” entry in the writer-director’s catalog.
“If there was ever a movie to kind of do a deep-dive on, it would be One Battle After Another,” the American Psycho and Less Than Zero author said in a recent episode of his podcast. “I just didn’t really like it. It has nothing to do with any kind of ideological shit. I know there are a lot of people on the right who hate the movie and I guess that’s kind of fair because I think the liberal, the very liberal entertainment press—I’m not painting them black or anything with that, it’s just a fact—have severely overrated it.”
Ellis went on to argue that the film will one day be considered “a kind of musty relic of the post-Kamala Harris era of, you know, that thing that everyone gathers around and pretends is so fantastic and so great when it really isn’t, just to make a point.”
To be clear, Ellis cited three PTA films—Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood—as masterpieces that only get “better and better” with each viewing. He also had complimentary thoughts to share on one particular scene from One Battle After Another, specifically highlighting the comedic aspects of Leo’s performance, though he ultimately felt “depressed” after watching the film.
“Overall, yeah, there’s a liberal mustiness to this movie that already feels very dated by October 2025. Very dated,” Ellis said, as heard here. “It just doesn’t read the room. It reads a tiny corner of the room but it does not read what is going on in America. It thinks something else is going on.”
One Battle After Another is widely expected to be looking at multiple nominations come Oscars time, Best Picture among them. PTA has been here before, with three of his films—There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza—previously competing in the category.