The Battles Proceed
Shortly after the reunion of Bob and Willa, we test again in on Lockjaw, who has incredulously survived the ordeal, albeit now badly disfigured. The leaders of the Christmas Adventurers Membership know that Lockjaw is Willa’s organic daughter, the results of his coupling with Perfida Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), a French 75 revolutionary, Bob’s girlfriend, and—most worrisomely for the racists who make up the membership—a Black girl. Regardless of being uncomfortably open about his fetishization of Black girls earlier within the movie, Lockjaw now insists that he was (in his phrasing) “reverse raped” by Perfida and the French 75.
A lot to his shock, the membership leaders appear to purchase the reason and induct him into the group. Lockjaw permits himself to enjoy his victory as a Christmas Adventurer reveals him round and brings him into his workplace. But no sooner does the door shut on Lockjaw’s workplace than the room fills with gasoline, killing the person at his highest level. We then watch as henchmen take out Lockjaw’s physique and cremate it.
For some, Lockjaw’s loss of life offers a kind of catharsis, exhibiting the utter degradation of an older physique that was clearly normal to a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stage of musculature. Nonetheless, the scene additionally makes a bigger level in regards to the nature of the white supremacy embraced by the membership and instiutional energy. A secret society constructed round arcane rituals riffing on pop cultural kitsch, the Christmas Adventurers Membership is the clearest signal of One Battle After One other‘s debt to the work of Thomas Pynchon, whose 1991 novel Vineland impressed Paul Thomas Anderson‘s movie.
Whereas the film retains among the postmodern playfulness present in Pynchon, Anderson takes a extra sober method to the specter of white supremacy, notably in its shockingly real looking depiction of militarized police. That seriousness makes the ultimate scenes that includes the Christmas Adventurers Membership not a reduction that Lockjaw is useless, however somewhat a reminder that the membership stays in energy, filled with hate and with limitless assets. It reminds the viewer that the battles proceed. And the enemy shouldn’t be solely entrenched, but additionally able to consuming their very own with out mercy, accountability… or something approaching a way of humanity and true kinship.
An American Woman
However let’s evaluate Lockjaw’s destiny with that of his meant prey. As stunning as it’s when she pulls a gun on her father and calls for that he full the code phrase, Willa’s actions are constant along with her character arc. She started the film merely desirous to be the American perfect of a standard teenager. She desires to simply go to a highschool dance along with her mates, to admire her mom (whom she thinks died a hero), and to not have to fret about her father’s reckless habits and his antiquated guidelines of passcodes and subversive politics. And but, all that falls aside when Lockjaw sends a squad of cops in fatigues and carrying assault weapons into her highschool.
By the tip of the movie, we’ve seen her prepare with weapons, outsmart Lockjaw and different cops, and escape from bounty hunters. Via a trial by fireplace she’s shortly grown into an adept revolutionary, particularly in distinction to the person who raised her. For each demonstration of competence on Willa’s half, we discover an instance of Bob mucking issues up, most notably his lack of ability to recollect any of the password phrases.
