Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest epic, One Battle After Another, demands to be seen on the largest screen possible to fully absorb the 35mm VistaVision experience with every cell of your body. Everything about it is grand: its characters, its action sequences, its timely sentiments, even the quieter moments. The confidence on display is simply unparalleled, and the fact that PTA throws it all in the blender – zaniness, gut-busting comedy, darkly relevant sociopolitical drama, spectacular action – and produces such a scrumptious cocktail serves as further testament to his status as one of the cinematic masters working today.
The most obvious comparison would be Kubrick’s classic Dr. Strangelove, but that wouldn’t entirely do it justice. One Battle After Another is a wholly unique creature, despite the allusions to cinema’s past – both bitingly satirical but deadly serious, heightened to the extreme but grounded in reality, meandering but deeply focused. In lesser hands, those idiosyncrasies would be jarring, but PTA establishes a mesmerizing flow (very much in the spirit of the great Thomas Pynchon, upon whose novel, Vineland, this film is loosely based), wherein everything is unexpected but everything gels. 160 minutes fly by, leaving you craving more. What a blessing and a gift this film is, a respite from the soulless, mind-numbing, juvenile crap that passes for “entertainment” these days.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor share a tender but tense moment with their baby.
“…with the help of fellow ex-revolutionaries, led by Deandra and assisted by local sensei Sergio, Bob has to rescue Willa…”
The plot in a nutshell: Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a member of a revolutionary uprising whose main goal is freeing illegal immigrants from the inhumane forces keeping them locked up in cages like dogs. A manifestation of everything that is evil about these forces is the aptly named Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), hell-bent on joining an absurdly racist, affluent cult of political elites. Like most racists, he is, in fact, enraptured by non-white individuals, and his latest target happens to be Bob’s partner, the fiery Perfidia (Teyana Taylor).
Pushed to the edge, forced to commit an unspeakable act, Perfidia disappears, leaving Bob and their baby to fend for themselves. Years pass. A stoned and deeply paranoid Bob and his now-16-year-old daughter, the defiant Willa (Chase Infiniti), live on the outskirts of society. But his past resurfaces, and now, with the help of fellow ex-revolutionaries, led by Deandra (Regina Hall) and assisted by local sensei Sergio (Benicio Del Toro), Bob has to rescue Willa from the clutches of evil.
One Battle After Another is one of those rare examples – think Pulp Fiction, No Country for Old Men, Sicario – where nary a moment is wasted, each scene smoothly leading to the next: a perfect synergy of sound and visuals, of heartrending and heartfelt, of allegory and verisimilitude. Anderson has major things to say about the current immigrant crisis, the futility of violence (and how it begets more violence), but also about the importance of revolution, about father-daughter bonds, about race and racism, and about, well, us as human beings. Our lives, after all, consist of the titular battles, and the more we fight – be it for a higher cause or for our personal freedom – the more obstacles arise.
"…words cannot describe how riveting Penn is here…"
