A modern day classic, perhaps?
The explosives expert in a modern revolutionary militia finds himself and his daughter hunted by American military police.
One Battle After Another is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. No, not the one who makes the symmetrical movies, nor the one who made the Resident Evil movies. This Anderson brought us more intense movies like There Will Be Blood and Punch Drunk Love. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio (Wolf of Wall Street), Benicio Del Toro (The Phoenician Scheme), Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, and Sean Penn.
There’s a sense that the studio didn’t quite know how to advertise this film. While the film does have levity running all the way through it, it isn’t as light-weight as the trailer suggests. In writing this review, I’ll probably cast it in a much more serious tone. It is, however, an excellent movie.
What better example then, to go into the film with the trailer in mind, only for it to start at an American Immigration Detention Centre. We see Bob (DeCaprio) and Perfidia (Taylor) executing a covert liberation of hundreds of immigrants. Part of the rebellious group The French 75, they are quickly targeted by a military Colonel called Steven J. Lockjaw. But Lockjaw has his own personal interests, specifically with Perfidia.
This film cuts real close to the bone about current politics. If the initial scene setting at a liberation action at an immigrant detention centre wasn’t enough, there’s plenty more incoming.
The film is two hours and forty minutes long. Which is quite an endeavour, yet it doesn’t feel long. It even features a sixteen year time jump and it gets away with it. Such is the strength of its characterisations and pacing of its scenes. DeCaprio’s character’s relationship with Taylor’s Perfidia feels volatile but real, sensual yet bogged down in reality. This carries over to his relationship with his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) years later. Sean Penn is positively one of the most hateable and awful characters seen in a long while. One would say a “caricature” of the toxically masculine white-supremacist, but one wonders how far from reality it really is.
The film does little to hide its themes. We see this American military police outfit descending on towns, arresting anyone of an immigrant background solely to cover their own intentions. We see white-supremacist cabals, lording from the shadows and dictating utterly ludicrous beliefs about humanity. It is a film about blood-ties and found families. A raw and intense story set in (sadly) contemporary America.
See what I mean about the trailer not quite selling all of it? But don’t worry, the levity is there. Mostly through DiCaprio’s Bob. The revolution’s ex-bomb builder. Who has spent sixteen years in hiding and getting drunk and high. But when he and his daughter’s lives are on the line, he can’t remember revolutionary passcodes, and thus begins a crazed chase across America.
DeCaprio is really bringing the crazy energy seen from Wolf of Wall Street here. He is scrambling around, desperate to get his phone charged. Meanwhile Benicio Del Toro is the cool-headed and controlled foil for his comedic antics. Steering Bob in the right direction. It is a lot of fun when the tempo increases like this; like a balm cooling down the stark reality underneath. Without this character, the film would have been extremely dour.
As a result, it could be seen as a film of two tones. Some might not think it all gels. There was a late-stage revelation that was extremely obvious, even from the first scenes. Not a real issue; the movie isn’t pretending to pull wool over our eyes.
There are characters we love, and characters we love to hate, and a solid, well-meaning message. It is good that an original film can express real world issues without becoming “hard to recommend” to people. One Battle After Another is rewarding and exciting.
