‘One Battle After Another’ Review
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, Tony Goldwyn, James Downey, Wood Harris, Shayna McHayle, Alana Haim, Starlette DuPois, D.W. Moffett, Paul Grimstead, James Raterman | Written by Paul Thomas Anderson, Thomas Pynchon | Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this blackly comic satirical thriller from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely adapted from the 1990 novel Vineland, by Thomas Pynchon. The film marks Anderson’s second adaptation of a Pynchon novel, following 2015’s Inherent Vice, and it looks set to gather serious awards attention, come Oscar time.
One Battle After Another begins with America as a fascist police state, where police and the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) routinely round up immigrants and imprison them in internment camps, prior to deportation. DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a member of a revolutionary group called the French 75, who specialise in jailbreaking immigrants and blowing stuff up.
Bob’s lover and partner-in-crime is African-American revolutionary leader Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor). But when Perfidia seduces hard-bitten military man Col. Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn) after first taking him prisoner, their encounter has serious repercussions.
Sixteen years later, Perfidia has disappeared into Witness Protection, leaving Bob – now a stoner and a drop-out – with Willa (Chase Infiniti), a 16 year old daughter he believes is his. However, when Lockjaw discovers Willa’s existence, he comes after her, intending to eliminate her so that he can gain entry to an exclusive organisation of elite white nationalists known as the Christmas Adventurers Club, who insist on racial purity.
One Battle After Another’s two hour forty minute running time might seem off-putting at first, but Anderson’s pacing is a thing of wonder, ensuring that the movie flies past. Consequently, the first act – concerning the revolutionary activity – zips along in a frenetic near-montage of subversive activity, punctuated with memorable images like a heavily pregnant Perfidia firing off an automatic assault rifle.
The second act effectively becomes a nail-biting chase thriller, as Bob learns that Willa is in danger and sets out to rescue her, clad only in a dressing gown, like The Dude in The Big Lebowski or Arthur Dent in The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Along the way he receives help from a supremely laid-back Benicio Del Toro as Sensei, Willa’s martial arts instructor, who runs an underground resistance network dedicated to helping immigrants.
There are a lot of different elements in One Battle After Another, from jet-black stoner comedy to dystopian action thriller to touching father-daughter story, something that’s given more emotional resonance by the fact that Anderson has four mixed-race children with his wife, Maya Rudolph. All of that is mixed in with political satire that is almost painfully close to reality, and Anderson’s script and direction fuse these things together seamlessly.
As for the performances, Di Caprio is on terrific form, even by his own high standards – expect to see him dominating the Best Actor conversation as awards season approaches. In his hands, Bob is a dishevelled loser, but a loser who’s ready to do the right thing, despite his own booze-and-weed-addled ineptitude – the scene where he struggles to remember the answer to the code phrase “What’s the time?” is just one of several comic highlights.
The supporting cast are equally good. Penn, in particular, is sensational, somehow finding notes of sympathy in Lockjaw’s tight-assed right-wing weirdo – the fact that he falls in love with Perfidia is oddly humanising. In addition, Teyana Taylor delivers an absolute firecracker of a performance, almost stealing the film, despite her relatively limited screen time, while Del Toro has one of his most enjoyable roles to date as Sensei – the way he effortlessly cruises through crisis after crisis, completely unruffled, is a joy to behold.
In short, One Battle After Another is a treat from start to finish. It’s equal parts thrilling, blackly funny, moving and disturbing, in its vision of a dystopian future that feels horrifyingly close, and yet it also manages to find a tiny glimmer of hope. It is unquestionably the best film of the year. Don’t miss it.
***** 5/5
One Battle After Another is in cinemas now.
