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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2468 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 3, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Anybody see the film One Battle After Another yet? I’m curious if it’s as a big a piece of agitprop as the glowing reviews paint it to be.

I love Paul Thomas Anderson, but this had the same fatal flaw "Inherent Vice" did - his original stories are mostly about characters in control of their environments these stories very much aren't. (But kudos for being the only filmmaker ballsy enough to adapt Pynchon novels, in the first place. And the direction was superb, even if the screenplay wasn't - same as Megalopolis, last year.)

Saw it today. Wellmade but the politics were kinda schizophrenic and it felt surprisingly happy to parody people on the Left as well.

I did. A friend suggested it to me, I should have known just based on the cast (much less a 90+% RT Rating) what it'd be like.

It was essentially watered-down Tarantino with implausibly organized leftist violence being celebrated. I regret pumping up the ticket numbers. It was still better than many other movies I've seen in the past couple of years, and was genuinely funny at points, so if you can tolerate it, at least there's that.

Honestly I'm confused what the point of Leonardo Di Caprio's character was. The movie essentially doesn't change if you just cut him. Maybe the funny phone call scene is lost but nothing much else.

I heard a theory that his character was about the inability of the old guard to communicate with the new wave of leftism, and the latter's insistence on specific language as a prerequisite for collaboration. See also his confusion at pronouns etc.

Honestly I'm confused what the point of Leonardo Di Caprio's character was.

The character had no point. Leonardo Di Caprio did. And it was getting consumers to actually show up and consoom.

True but dude had fuck all bearing on the plot.

I regret pumping up the ticket numbers. I’m planning on waiting till it’s on streaming for that reason (obv that still counts, but it’s diffuse enough that I can lie to myself).

with implausibly organized leftist violence

The book it’s loosely based on, Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, was set in the 80s. The revolutionaries were ex-Weatherman/Black Panther types. Which makes a lot more sense than an organized leftist domestic terrorist group who used to engage in direct action against... the Obama administration circa 2010???

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