One Battle After Another, 8/10
This is the recent Paul Thomas Anderson film that's been making waves, and deservedly so. It's about a former revolutionary turned stoner burnout whose daughter gets captured by a military colonel whom he once had beef with, and a tense search and rescue ensues. That doesn't really bring across what kind of film this is, which is the most provocative, politically incendiary big budget mainstream film released in like 20 years. It doesn't just kick the hornet's nest, it runs a whole football team over it and then sets it on fire. It's set 5 minutes (or more like 5 seconds) into the future in the US, where the country seems to be tearing apart at the seams, on the brink of separation or outright civil war. The details of this dystopian future are kept somewhat vague since we experience the vast majority of the film from grassroots level, but it still sinks its teeth into tons of uncomfortable topics: the militarization of police, rounding up of immigrants and dissidents, political violence and terrorism, armed revolution, white supremacy, the list goes on.
It's great, but I didn't have quite the epiphany some people seem to have experienced with this film. It's top of the line stuff through and through: the production values are outstanding, the stacked cast (Benicio del Toro, Leo DiCaprio, Sean Penn among others) are all bringing their A-game, the filmmaking is just through the roof. The tone is a very interesting mix of oppressive dystopia, stoner farce and an incredibly tense action movie, giving it a very interesting, eclectic feel. The pacing is just immaculate: the 2 h 40 minutes just flew past.
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