A critically acclaimed movie with more than its share of controversy found an even more widely acclaimed critic who called the film a “musty relic of the post-Kamala Harris era”.
American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis had choice words for “One Battle After Another”, a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio that follows a band of militant leftists who often commit violence against law enforcement, including border patrol agents.
While the film currently boasts an impressive score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, a website that aggregates movie critic reviews, Ellis said the movie was ‘not very good’ and that critics were giving it high marks because of political bias.
“It’s kind of shocking to see these kind of accolades for — I’m sorry, it’s not a very good movie — because of its political ideology, and it’s so obvious that’s what they’re responding to,” Eliis said on his podcast. “Why it’s considered a masterpiece, the greatest film of the decade, the greatest film ever made [is] because it really aligns with this kind of leftist sensibility.”
Prominent conservative media outlets were quick to criticize the movie for its political overtones as the country continues to grapple with an increase in political violence after the tragic murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. (RELATED: Wisconsin Democratic Aide Under Fire for Facebook Post About ‘Choosing Violence’)
The National Review went so far as to call it the most ‘irresponsible movie’ of the year for its glorification of left-wing violence.
Rather than criticizing the movie for being irresponsible, Ellis called it “a kind of musty relic of the post-Kamala Harris era — that thing everyone gathers around and pretends is so fantastic and so great when it really isn’t, just to make a point. … There’s a liberal mustiness to this movie that already feels very dated by October 2025. Very dated.”
Despite being sharply criticized by Ellis and others, the film is currently the highest rated of the year by Metacritic and has brought in over $100 million at the box office.