How can something this important be this entertaining?
Whatever the code is, Paul Thomas Anderson has cracked it in “One Battle After Another,” a great film that feels like a throwback and an assessment of How Things Are and a dark premonition of the future, presented in a rollicking action-adventure story that starts fast and never slows down, with brilliant performances along the way.
Neat trick. Anderson pulls it off perfectly. It’s that rare film that allows you to laugh at the dumb antics of some of the characters, even as you despair over what they’re doing. (Sean Penn is especially good at that.)
This is the best movie of the year, at least so far, and one of Anderson’s best, ever.
What is ‘One Battle After Another’ about?
The film, loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland,” begins with French 75, a revolutionary group, freeing immigrants along the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The strong-willed leader of the group, Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), has something special in store for Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Penn). Thus begins his obsession with her.
Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), Perfidia’s partner in revolution and in love, is a demolitions expert. Eventually, she gets pregnant, but after having a daughter, given the choice between the life of a revolutionary or a new mother, she goes the revolutionary route.
Cut to Bob 16 years later, a single parent to Willa (Chase Infiniti, incredibly confident and magnetic in her first (!) film. He’s not your typical parent, though. His constant marijuana smoking and drinking — we only ever see him in a ratty bathrobe, it seems like — has fried his brain and increased his paranoia.
Though his paranoia is not unwarranted. Lockjaw, obsessed with everything about Perfidia, concocts a reason to send authorities into the town where Bob and Willa are living. Imagine that — making up reasons to invade an American city. Anderson wrote this movie before the second Trump administration began, but this isn’t the only eerie parallel to what’s going on right now.
There are eerie parallels to current events
For instance, Lockjaw has a particular reason to find Bob and Willa, details of which I won’t reveal. But it’s all tied in with a white nationalist cult called the Christmas Adventurers Club, a seemingly goofy bunch (“Hail St. Nick!”) whose members actually yield incredible power, and for whom racial purity is a must. It goes from silly to terrifying in short order. And hits a little too close to home.
Bob escapes Lockjaw’s raid, but Willa is captured and the rest of the film chronicles his wayward attempt to find her. This proves difficult because he’s such a burnout. He calls whatever number you call to get French 75 on the phone, but is stymied by one of the group’s security legend. Despite his status as a hero to the revolutionaries, he can’t remember the answer to, “What time is it?” So he has to figure out something else.
This includes getting help from Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, the martial arts instructor running a kind of underground railroad for immigrants. He’s played with the perfect amount of sleepy charm by the always-great Benicio Del Toro. In films like “Sicario” Del Toro radiates deadly menace just by standing there; his presence alone is still and terrifying. He’s often still here, too, never panicked, often funny — and he gets the job done.
The cast is great, especially Sean Penn
It’s tempting to say that in a film loaded with great performances, his is my favorite. But really, that changed depending on who was on-screen. DiCaprio has a ball playing Bob, who would like to do the right thing if only he could remember how. I had a ball watching him play Bob, because it’s nice to see him not take himself so seriously — while immersed in a deadly serious situation.
Infiniti, meanwhile, commands her scenes, many of which include either DiCaprio or Penn, so that’s really saying something. She makes Willa’s transformation from a bemused, sometimes frustrated kid to an in-your-face young woman convincing — and interesting.
But it’s Penn’s performance people will talk about. It is, without question, over the top, a sir-yes-sir action-movie cartoon come to life. It is also carefully modulated, meticulously executed. You can’t take your eyes off of him. Yes, he makes broad choices — but contained with those are subtleties that give Lockjaw a sliver of humanity. It’s pretty amazing.
The whole movie is amazing. (Also: Shoutout to longtime Anderson collaborator Jonny Greenwood’s score, adding to the chaos.)
Move “One Battle After Another” right up to the top of the can’t-miss list. You will not be disappointed.
‘One Battle After Another’ 5 stars
Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★
Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson.
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Sean Penn.
Rating: R for pervasive language, violence, sexual content, and drug use.
How to watch: In theaters Friday, Sept. 26.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ‘One Battle After Another’ is best movie of the year. So far
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