30 Years in the making, One Battle After Another promises to be a great time at the movies
The first reactions for One Battle After Another, directed by Anderson and starring DiCaprio, are ecstatic as none other than Mr. Steven Spielberg heaps praise on the movie. While this is the first time Anderson and DiCaprio have worked together, they once came close.
Playing bit parts on TV and a couple of movies, DiCaprio’s breakout role was in 1992’s This Boy’s Life, where he starred opposite Robert De Niro. He followed that performance by starring opposite Johnny Depp next in 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, DiCaprio’s performance as the mentally disabled Arnie was so sympathetic and natural, it earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. At the age of 19, an Oscar nominee and terribly good-looking, DiCaprio was about to enter pop culture and become a phenomenon soon.
While Baz Luhrrman’s Romeo + Juliet was released in 1996, starring DiCaprio and Claire Danes, Anderson released his first film, Hard Eight. While getting a hands-on education on the film industry working as a production assistant, a self-written short film starring Phillip Baker Hall led to PTA’s directorial debut. While Anderson broke out as a filmmaker to watch out for, Romeo + Juliet became a blockbuster and turned DiCaprio into a star.
When DiCaprio was looking for his next project, he was offered Anderson’s next film, Boogie Nights. In a recent interview, DiCaprio said that he still regrets not working on Boogie Nights. Unfortunately, he was committed to this little movie called Titanic. At the Oscars celebrating movies from 1997, Boogie Nights was nominated for 3 awards, including Best Original Screenplay for Anderson. At the same event, Titanic was nominated for a record-setting 11 nominations.
Titanic turned DiCaprio into an overnight global sensation. His turn as Jack Dawson, a young American artist who falls in love with Rose (Kate Winslet) from the ship’s first class quarters, melted hearts all over. It brought on a craze amongst young girls and women, called Leo-mania. It was real and it was intense. Men wanted to be him, and women wanted to be with him.
DiCaprio could’ve been bigger than Cary Grant after Titanic if he continued to make romantic movies, but instead, he chose Danny Boyle’s The Beach. In The Beach, he plays the archetypal millennial, thirsty for a life seen in movies and TV filled with mystery and romance. It is a daring choice, and a movie that holds up despite receiving mixed reviews when it opened.
DiCaprio always surprised audiences by playing complex characters while working with the finest film directors such as Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Clint Eastwood, and Christopher Nolan. However, his long-term collaboration with Martin Scorsese produced some of the finest movies since the 2000s, allowing DiCaprio to showcase his wide range playing distinct characters such as Howard Hughes in The Aviator and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.
Working with Scorsese allowed him to improvise and define characters following meticulous research and rehearsals. While DiCaprio had his collaboration with Scorsese, Anderson worked with nearly every great American actor active during the time. In 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love, he even turned Adam Sandler into a serious actor. It was bizarre for some and confusing for most to see Sandler in Anderson’s movie because until then, Sandler was getting by being cute in his silly comedies. Punch-Drunk Love was a pleasant surprise and a timeless romantic film in retrospect, as Sandler is pitted against fine actors such as Emily Watson and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
Anderson followed that up with There Will Be Blood with the legendary Daniel Day-Lewis. He went on to direct Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in possibly the best performances of their careers in The Master. Anderson’s work with Day-Lewis, Phoenix and Hoffman is sure to be remembered as one of the peaks of American cinematic artistry.
What makes Anderson’s work thoroughly fascinating is that his stories follow the characters in the darkest depths of themselves, rarely making it out in any victorious fashion. Instead of giving us the tried and tested hero’s journey, he gives us a journey that’s all too human. An original writer known to make cinematic novels and push his actors to their artistic limits, it was only a matter of time before DiCaprio featured in one of his stories.
One Battle After Another is, first of all, an incredible title and apt for the ‘rat-race’ human experience. In the trailer alone, DiCaprio impresses as an ex-revolutionary used to living for a cause. The beauty of Anderson’s painted canvas shines through even in the trailer. Add to that, supporting turns from Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro, the movie is guaranteed to feature solid acting performances, something that PTA has yet to fail to deliver.
One Battle After Another releases on the 26th of September, and based on Warner Bros. Pictures’ faith in the movie, which can be presumed by its $130 million budget, it will surely be released in a movie theatre near you. For fans of the art form and the power it holds who wish the film industries around the world continue to make important films and not just comic book or animated movies targeted to the part of our brains that craves relaxation, then let us give this movie the attention it deserves.
