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Andrew Klavan’s blistering takedown of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another landed where it should: on the side of reality. Klavan — a veteran novelist-turned-commentator who hosts a popular show on the Daily Wire and posts his takes across platforms — called the film what many Americans watching the culture wars already know it to be: a left-wing fantasy divorced from the lived experience of hardworking people.
Make no mistake: this is a Hollywood tentpole with an auteur’s name attached. One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson’s new, big-budget film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn, released late September and backed by studio money and media buzz that would make any ideology-hungry director salivate. The film’s wide release and box-office haul underscore how much the establishment is willing to spend to push a political story into the mainstream.
The critics who celebrate Anderson’s political sermon are not merely praising “art” — they are lauding a movie that frames radicalism and grievance as noble imperatives while trivializing ordinary Americans’ concerns. Outlets in the cultural elite heap praise on the movie’s “meditation on resistance,” but that is precisely the problem: art has become a vehicle for agitprop, not a messy exploration of truth. When Hollywood treats one political script as the only moral script, real debate and real art both lose.
That is why Klavan’s voice matters. He didn’t swoon at star power or sit silent while a multi-million dollar film disguised its preaching as profundity; he called it out for what it is — a fantasy designed to normalize an extremist worldview and to fortify the media’s narrative. Conservatives should stop pretending the culture is neutral; when the megaphone is owned by those who profit from division, we have to counter with clear-eyed criticism and with stories that uplift, not tear down.
And let’s be honest about the consequences: Warner Bros. and other studios funnel tens of millions into projects that double as political messages, then act surprised when audiences feel manipulated. Inflated budgets for ideologically driven films are a poor business model when viewers sense being lectured instead of entertained, and the backlash will come from the very people Hollywood claims to champion. The marketplace of ideas — and of tickets — will decide whether this kind of filmmaking thrives.
So here’s the bottom line for patriots and practical people alike: support films that tell true stories about real Americans, not rehearsed sermons from a coastal elite. Turn down the prestige politics and turn up creators who respect liberty, faith, and the values that built this country; and keep listening to critics like Andrew Klavan who have the courage to say what so many others won’t.
