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Film Criticism and Fiction Writing by Derek Jacobs

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Vineland

“One Battle After Another”: a Complete Satire of Polarization

October 23, 2025 by Derek Jacobs
Split image showing two opposing characters from One Battle After Another. On the left, a woman in a military jacket (Perfidia Beverly Hills) speaks tensely into a pay phone, her face half-lit in blue neon. On the right, a stern older man (Colonel Lockjaw) stands behind a chain-link fence under harsh white light, his expression rigid. The contrasting color tones and framing emphasize their ideological opposition and mirror-like symmetry.

A film that turns America’s ideological fever into satire— and dares us to see the joke’s on us.

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Categories Essays, Single Film Essay Tags Dr. Strangelove, Drama, film criticism, film essay, Kubrick, One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson, political polarization, Satire, Starship Troopers, Steely Dan Dirty Work, Thomas Pynchon, Vineland Leave a comment
My debut novel, currently querying literary agents. Click image for all posts related to Viral Agents.
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If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed.

Stanley Kubrick

Art is realistic when it strives to express an ethical ideal. Realism is striving for truth, and truth is always beautiful. Here the aesthetic coincides with the ethical.

Andrei Tarkovsky

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