Movie Scene: The revolution has just been televised

The latest film by auteur Paul Thomas Anderson is best described as chaotic – but very much in a good way.

‘One Battle After Another,’ adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s ‘Vineland,’ joins Anderson’s eclectic canon alongside ‘Boogie Nights,’ ‘There Will Be Blood,’ and, most recently, ‘Licorice Pizza.’

This review will stay light on synopsis, since to reveal too much would spoil the fun.

We open with revolutionaries Perfidia (Teyonah Taylor) and Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) freeing a group of immigrants from the clutches of army man Steven J Lockjaw (Sean Penn). Lockjaw becomes obsessed with tracking them down, even as Perfidia and Bob’s romance begins to fracture. Fast forward sixteen years: Bob, now washed-up and self-medicating with weed and booze, is hiding out with his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) in a sleepy town. When Lockjaw discovers their whereabouts, Bob must flee to keep Willa safe.

If that sounds straightforward believe me, it isn’t. Anderson described the film in a recent interview as “what happens when revolutionaries collapse in on themselves.” True to his word, Battle is a wild ride, skirting the experimental despite its hefty $130 million budget.

The first hour lays the groundwork: Bob and Perfidia’s uneasy romance, a pulsating (and at times darkly funny) raid on the immigrant camp, and Lockjaw’s pursuit through brisk cut scenes that keep the energy high. Once Bob and Willa are found, the film goes gloriously off the rails. Extended car chases, shootouts, familial drama, oddball comedy, and eccentric supporting characters careen through neon-lit cityscapes and bone-dry desert. Anderson switches between snappy fragments and long, handheld takes that capture the sheer silliness of it all. One “driver’s view” sequence in the final act is pure genius. Beneath the madness, the film digs into America’s divides – the “haves and have-nots,” and the persistence of racism.

Jonny Greenwood’s score mirrors the chaos, darting between swooping strings, booming percussion, and tinkling piano. It propels the action but occasionally verges on distracting. Still, at 162 minutes, the film flies by – proof that Battle is never dull.

Performances could well be awards-bound. DiCaprio is a livewire as Bob, balancing nervous energy with parental tenderness; his repeated struggles to remember a password are among the film’s funniest moments.

Penn is outstanding as Lockjaw, a rigid army man who could have marched straight out of Dr Strangelove. Taylor is magnetic as Perfidia, though it’s a shame she exits a third of the way through. Infiniti and Benicio Del Toro round out the cast with scene-stealing turns.

Messy, tonally unruly, and often nonsensical, ‘One Battle After Another’ is Anderson at his best: fearless, funny, and full of life.