Movie Review: One Battle After Another

It can be a dangerous thing to become too excited about an upcoming movie (or book, or album, or video game, or whatever you might be into). Sure, it’s good to look forward to things, but building something up too much in your head can set you up for disappointment. Being a huge fan of director Paul Thomas Anderson since I first saw Boogie Nights in the old Beach Theater in Cape May, trying to keep my anticipation for his latest in check was a mostly futile effort. Luckily, he once again met my expectations.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as bumbling ex-revolutionary Bob, who has since been living in hiding with his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti, giving a star-making performance). After years of relative quiet, he has forgotten much of what he learned as a member of the French 75 collective, though he does maintain a good deal of paranoia which he deals with by consuming copious amounts of alcohol and marijuana.

When an old nemesis of the group, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (an impressively deranged Sean Penn), reappears and threatens Willa’s safety, he is forced to take action to try and keep her safe, enlisting the help of local karate instructor Sensei Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio Del Toro) and one of his old crewmates Deandra (Regina Hall) along the way.

Loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, this sees Anderson fully embracing the wide-ranging, free-roaming narrative style that he is best known for. It isn’t an ensemble piece like my favorite of his films (Magnolia and the aforementioned Boogie Nights), but it does feature a host of odd characters played to perfection by the impressive cast. And while the plot may have a seemingly shaggy structure, touching on racism, immigration, secret societies, fascism, and terrorism as it meanders toward the finale, at its core it’s a touching story about a father who loves his daughter and is willing to go to incredible lengths to keep her safe.

I don’t think we’re ever going to see Anderson give us another movie quite as flashy as his early epics, nor quite as odd as Punch-Drunk Love, but he still mixes in healthy doses of darkly absurdist comedy and masterful camera control (this time with cinematographer Michael Bauman) to create something that feels like it could only have come from him. Add in the superb score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and you get a movie that features some of the year’s most stunning sequences, including a nail-bitingly suspenseful car chase that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.

For me, this isn’t quite Anderson’s best film, but that has more to do with just how impressive his track record has been than with any faults to be found here. One Battle After Another is the work of a master filmmaker. He has lots to say and does it in style, gifting us the audience with one of the year’s richest and most entertaining experiences and a movie that I can see myself returning to again and again. ★★★★★