One Battle After Another: Movie Review

Cast: Leonardo di Caprio, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Regina Hall

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

In this latest, a mix of action and comedy from Phanton Thread director Paul Thomas Anderson, Leonardo di Caprio plays ex-revolutionary Bob.

Living off the grid and with his daughter Willa, Bob's forced into action when his nemesis resurfaces and his daughter goes missing.

But does he have what it takes to battle with the consequences of his own past?

One Battle After Another's occasionally rambling free-form feeling narrative is fun to watch play out, but while the film's very good, it's not quite up there with Anderson's best.

There's a dry, whimsical edge to some of the dialogue and large hints of screwball scattered throughout as well as DiCaprio's Bob tries to deal with his former revolutionaries - one of the film's enduring highlights remains an extended conversation and simmering frustrations and rage over a password.

But a large part of this film feels like it's receiving plaudits because of its parallels to what's transpiring in America currently. With camps filled with immigrants and swoops by police and army soldiers into territories, there's plenty of familiar touches with what's happening in Donald Trump's America. Likewise, the cabal of old racist white men defining the course of the narrative is nothing new, but again, timely parallels help sell it.

Yet while these moments are timely, they're not timeless as despite Anderson's insistence that the film seeks to comment on the powerless nature currently of revolutionaries and those who speak up against the powers that be, there's a surface-level of commentary and little else to go on.

Thankfully, the performances are what marks this out as exemplary.

From Benicio del Toro's dry sensei who gradually is revealed as a person hiding immigrants through to Teyana Taylor's firecracker turn as the revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills early on, there's much to catch the eye here.

Penn turns his Lockjaw nemesis into something truly odious and distinctly uncomfortable in most of his scenes and DiCaprio has fun playing fast and loose with Bob, the revolutionary who'd rather stay at home and be paranoid than be involved once again.

At its heart, One Battle After Another is about a father and daughter relationship. And it's here that Chase Infiniti excels, bringing both a toughness garnered from her absent mother and a vulnerability of a daughter unable to fully move out from under the wing of her father.

There are many vicarious thrills to be had with One Battle After Another and while there's nary a hint of bloat despite the 160 minute run-time, there is a feeling that in parts, the film could have spent more on its themes rather than just its parallels.