Bret Easton Ellis is baffled by how popular “One Battle After Another” is given he thinks the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie is full “liberal mustiness” that makes the film feel dated.
In the latest episode of “The Brett Easton Ellis Podcast,” the author went on for a long time on the problems he has with the new Anderson film. Ellis, who is responsible for penning “American Psycho,” “Less Than Zero” and more, has never shied away from a divisive movie take and his dislike of “One Battle After Another” is his latest.
“It’s kind of shocking to see these kind of accolades for — I’m sorry, it’s a not-very-good movie — because of it’s political ideology,” Ellis said. “And it’s so obvious that is what they’re responding to, why it’s considered a masterpiece, the greatest film of the decade, the greatest film ever made. Because it really aligns with this kind of leftist sensibility.”
He added later: “There’s a liberal mustiness to this movie that already feels very dated by October 2025. Very dated. And it just doesn’t read the room. You know, it reads a tiny corner of the room, but it does not read what is going on in America.”
Ellis went on to clarify he is a fan of Anderson’s other films – particularly 2007’s “There Will Be Blood” – but thinks this one misses the mark aside from some particularly striking cinematography.
The author is a well-known rabble-rouser in Hollywood and someone who has cultivated a number of feuds with his opinions and comments. A wide-ranging list includes stars like Barbra Streisand and Meryl Streep alongside authors including David Foster Wallace.
“One Battle After Another” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a former revolutionary who is forced out of retirement when he and his daughter – played by Chase Infiniti – are hunted by Colonel Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn).
