In Paul Thomas Anderson 鈥檚 gloriously messy, madcap roller coaster ride through modern America, objects in the rear view may go out of sight, but they don鈥檛 disappear.
Political struggles never die in they just repeat. Or maybe they grow older and become paranoid, pot-smoking, pajama-wearers like Bob Ferguson ( ), a washed-up revolutionary living off the grid with his daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). The cycles of oppression and resistance are palpably felt in Anderson鈥檚 film, a decades-spanning odyssey where gun violence, white power and immigrant deportations recur in an ongoing dance, both farcical and tragic.
But 鈥淥ne Battle After Another鈥 could also be fairly described as a sweet movie about a father coming to terms with his teenage daughter having a phone 鈥 which is one example of how Anderson鈥檚 destabilizing approach to big themes can turn poignant and revelatory. 鈥淪weeping鈥 would normally be a way to characterize a nearly three-hour-long, multigeneration saga like this, but Anderson works in a more rough-hewn, compassionate register that burrows strangely but acutely into the American psyche.
鈥淥ne Battle After Another鈥 is arriving after months of speculation and some skepticism because it鈥檚 easily Anderson鈥檚 biggest budgeted, largest scaled film yet. But scale is an interesting thing when it comes to Anderson鈥檚 movies. 鈥淢agnolia鈥 is modest by most metrics, but you鈥檇 be hard pressed to find a more ambitious movie. 鈥淭here Will Be Blood鈥 didn鈥檛 feature much spectacle beyond some rickety wooden oil rigs, but it feels about as large as the frame of Daniel Day-Lewis鈥 Daniel Plainview, which is to say terrifyingly enormous.
Likewise, 鈥淥ne Battle After Another,鈥 shot on VistaVision, is big and long but feels intimate and fast. That鈥檚 partly due to the propulsion of its opening prologue and the absurd knockout vigor of Teyana Taylor as a scorching, potent screen presence. Her Perfidia Beverly Hills is at the center of the movie鈥檚 beginning. And she makes such a powerful mark that it takes half an hour for 鈥淥ne Battle After Another鈥 to pick up the pieces after it moves on. (My personal recovery time is ongoing.)
We first see Perfidia, dressed in all black, striding across an overpass. Below is an immigration detention center. The atmosphere is tumultuous. Bob is there, ready to set off fireworks or bombs, but has little clue of the plan. She assures him: 鈥淢ake it big, make it bright. Inspire me.鈥
They and their co-conspirators soon announce their intentions, freeing the immigrants, tying up the military guards and declaring that they鈥檙e the radical group the French 75. This is the start, Perfidia says, of a revolution. Their cause is righteous but their drive is visceral and sexual. Bomb-making and sex go hand in hand. Bob trails after Perfidia, in love with her but also in awe. Perfidia鈥檚 mother doesn鈥檛 give them much of a chance as a couple. 鈥淪he鈥檚 a runner and you鈥檙e a stone,鈥 she tells him.
At the same time, Perfidia comes in contact with Col. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), a rock-jawed military man who, too, swoons for Perfidia. When they first meet, she holds him at gunpoint and tells him to 鈥淕et it up,鈥 and she doesn鈥檛 mean his hands. These charged scenes, followed by Perfidia鈥檚 pregnancy and new police trouble for the French 75, set the table for the drama to come, set 16 years after this opening salvo, a frenetic eruption of Black and female power.
By then, the forces fought by the radicals have clawed back their advantage. Lockjaw (this is a taut, drained, maniacal Penn) now moves with impunity, directing troops on illegal raids where he chooses. Some of those in power like what he鈥檚 doing. A secret white supremacist group called the Christmas Adventurers (they speak of cleansing the Earth and greet each other with 鈥渕erry Christmas鈥) offers him a membership.
The French 75 are essentially no more. Bob is now alone with their 16-year-old daughter. He鈥檚 grown less connected with the world. He calls his daughter鈥檚 friend 鈥淗omie,鈥 has trouble with pronouns and usually has a roach going. It鈥檚 the most Lebowski-esque performance by DiCaprio, whose recent gravity toward less polished, error-prone characters (鈥淜illers of the Flower Moon,鈥 鈥淥nce Upon a Time in Hollywood鈥) has made for some of his most interesting movies.
Willa, though, is said to have her mother鈥檚 courage. (Infiniti, a newcomer, has an inner strength that comes across clear as day.) When Lockjaw comes looking for Willa, a new cycle of state-sponsored violence is set off. That brings in a delightful Benicio Del Toro as a combination sensei and Harriet Tubman-like figure to immigrants who shepherds Bob when the authorities are closing in. This is probably the most shambolic section of the movie, but Del Toro鈥檚 Sergio St. Carlos is also the film鈥檚 most resonate encapsulation of freedom. He鈥檚 free because his purpose is clear and principled.
This is a movie filled with police convoys across the land and military tactics that effectively turn modern-day America into a battlefield. The film, inspired by Thomas Pynchon鈥檚 鈥淰ineland,鈥 shares some of the culture clash of Anderson鈥檚 earlier Pynchon adaptation, 鈥淚nherent Vice.鈥 But 鈥淥ne Battle After Another,鈥 graced with a swelling score by Johnny Greenwood that gives the movie a hint of epic, feels more urgently contemporary and more morally motivated.
That makes 鈥淥ne Battle After Another,鈥 as a major studio release clattering with straightforward representations of racism, xenophobia and vigilantism, an exception in almost every way to modern-day Hollywood. I鈥檓 sure that will bring debate, just as any good movie does. And I鈥檓 sure some will find its American portrait muddled and chaotic. But those aspects feel true, too, just as does the movie鈥檚 abiding fighting spirit.
鈥淥ne Battle After Another,鈥 a Warner Bros. release is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for pervasive language, violence, sexual content, and drug use. Running time: 170 minutes. Four stars out of four.
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