One Battle After Another

I think the various end-of-year lists elevated my expectations for this a bit too far, expecting a miracle of modern film exposing points both poignant and revelatory. What I found was an exceptionally well photographed story of people trying to do their best given the circumstances around them, but those circumstances ultimately being unfair. Which isn’t to say that this is a poignant or revelatory notion - life is unfair even to the militant fascists. Or at least it is in fiction.

What did manage to exceed my influenced expectations was the use of absurdity to poke fun at everyone involved. Ghetto Pat chastising the help line operator was exceptionally in line with his 2x militant take on Lebowski. The Christmas Adventurers Club being a secret fascist organization of white supremacists who chant “Hail Saint Nick” was hilarious. As were the militant nuns.

The thing that I found most telling, was how well paced and engaging the film overall was. The above are mostly nitpicks and nitpraises. I sat down with the full intent of watching the film over two nights, but ended up viewing it all in one sitting.