One Battle After Another:
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson, Thomas Pynchon
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Regina Hall
Review:
Hello and welcome to another week here at 1guysmindlessmoviereviews.com. As I write this, it’s Sunday evening after Fall Break. That means the kids go back to school tomorrow, and our schedules will start to get busy again. Hopefully, everyone had a chance to get out and enjoy the nice Fall weather while it lasts. It can change suddenly. During the break, I also had the chance to get away and see “One Battle After Another.” Now, let me give the spoiler warning for this one. If you haven’t seen it yet, please return to my reviews page here to explore the available content for you to read.
“One Battle After Another” is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and boasts a fantastic cast, along with a unique story and a touch of humor sprinkled in for good measure. Anderson has an interesting directing history, with some polarizing titles and numerous music videos. So, this might be his biggest and boldest film to date.
With a running time of 2 hours and 42 minutes, we have plenty of time for a long setup…and that’s exactly what we get. Pat (DiCaprio) and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) are both a part of a rebel group known as the French 75, along with Deandra (Hall) and many others. They get their hands dirty in almost everything you can think of when it comes to immigration, banks, or protecting basic freedoms of the city they are in.
While all of this is going on, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Penn) is one of their revolutionary victims. He stays hot on their tail and becomes infatuated with Perfidia. Eventually, she gets pregnant, and she and Pat become parents. Never one to be pinned down, she leaves and is caught and brought in. Lockjaw makes a deal with her, and she gives up names so it’s a max exodus for the rest of the French 75.
16 years pass, and here we are now with Pat (now Bob from here on out due to a new identity) and his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) trying to live a normal life. All is good for a bit until one of the remaining rebels gets caught and is forced to give up names. Deandra shows up at Willa’s school dance, convinces her to leave, and escapes just in time. While this is going on, Bob gets a call that he needs to leave, so this starts the high-action moments of “One Battle After Another”.
Bob also escapes through a tunnel and makes his way to Sensei Sergio St. Carlos (Del Toro) to ask for help. Sergio agrees to help, but also knows what that means for all of the immigrants living in the apartment connected to where he lives. As he helps them all get out of the building, some of his “partners” assist with getting Bob to where he needs to go. Willa and Deandra have made it to the safe house, so he’s trying to get to his daughter.
Eventually, Lockjaw catches up to them and finds the women at the safe house before Bob can make it there. It seems he’s had an agenda the whole time, as Willa may be his daughter, and he needs to make her go away since he can’t be seen as having a mixed-race relationship. Honestly, that whole part was odd, and the movie could have been 45 minutes shorter without it and still been good.
We never find out what happens with Deandra, but Willa fights back, Bob catches up to her, and they are able to get away and back to a life where it’s just the two of them again. Happy ending is a strong word to use here since so much bad happens along the way, but Bob and Willa are safe, so that’s a good start.
Overall, “One Battle After Another” was a really good movie. I enjoyed it a lot and there is much praise that can be sent its way. Like I mentioned before, it was a unique story and it was told in a very neat way that was very entertaining. Sean Penn’s character was very odd and had a very odd walk… not sure why. I also didn’t really see the need for the Christmas Club part. Some of it was entertaining, but I don’t think it was needed. You could have had Lockjaw have a wreck at the end, just as easy to kill him off.
Very good acting across the board here, even for the ones that are fairly new at it. I’m talking about you, Chase! Leo has been on a roll for years now, picking great roles to play and doing a very good job at it. I still can’t believe I was such a latecomer to the DiCaprio club. But Del Toro stole the film in my opinion… even for as little as he was in it. I’m honestly already looking forward to another watch of this and hope I pick up some more stuff I didn’t see the first time around. I give this film a very strong 8 out of 10.
Watch or Wait?
Ok, so should you go see this in theaters or wait to watch it streaming at home? I could go either way here, but “One Battle After Another” is definitely a must-watch at some point. If you can make it out to go see it… Do it, if not I would watch it at home as soon as it comes out.
So, that’s it for me this week. But now I want to know your thoughts. Have you seen this new classic yet? If so, what did you think of it? Are you as high on it as I am or do you have anything bad to say about it? Either way, let me know in the comments, and I will be back next week with another mindless movie review of some sort.
