Weekend Mullings - One Battle After Another | Dead of Winter

I have yet to see a Paul Thomas Anderson movie that I do no connect with on some level, even when I haven't necessarily loved some of them (though I have loved the majority of them), and I feel like all that's come before has simply been a lead up to One Battle After Another,  his best film yet. Indeed, Anderson says he's been crafting it, in one way or another, for 20 years, taking some inspiration from the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, not doubt some inspiration from parenthood, and definitely some inspiration from the times we're living in.

I'll keep it simple, plot wise, as it is fun going in knowing very little. The bones of the story centers on a group of multiracial revolutionaries in contemporary United States that call themselves the French 75. Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor, amazing) and her partner Ghetto Pat (Leonardo DiCaprio, hilarious) are not necessarily the leaders of the gang, but they are definitely the group's cheerleaders, and they take more from their revolutionary acts than just a sense of doing what's right; Perfidia's preferred form of foreplay appears to be blowing shit up.

A time jump of 16 years happens, and we are now perhaps in the present? Or perhaps a bit in the future? Years are never explicitly stated. And while their revolution has not come to pass, that doesn't mean the powers that be, especially a white supremacist named Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn, insane) aren't still after the French 75, for reasons that are more personal than political (though really, aren't those so often one and the same?) Perfidia and Pat's daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti, a revelation) is now target number one.

The title One Battle After Another does not lie, as the film, at almost three hours long, rarely pauses to catch its breath. I barely noticed that running time, and I think that's the most important point here. Yes, the film is radical, and political, and could frankly be seen as a call to arms by both sides of the aisle. But it's also exciting, and funny. Leonardo DiCaprio's Pat/Bob could easily be The Dude's distant cousin, another stoner in a bathrobe who finds himself ensnared in a plot he's wholly unprepared for. I'm not sure I've ever seen DiCaprio take on something that almost borders on slapstick, and he's terrific at it. He should do more comedies!

P.T. Anderson movies always center on families, in some form or another, be it families of one's own choosing, as in Boogie Nights and Hard Eight; or fucked up families, as in Magnolia and Phantom Thread; or destructive families, as in The Master and There Will Be Blood. But One Battle After Another is the first Anderson film where that familiar bond, specifically a father's love for his daughter, is the film's heart, soul, and driving force. (And when I say driving force, I mean that both literally and figuratively. There is a car chase near the end of the film that is unlike any other car chase ever put on screen. That alone is worth an IMAX ticket.)

Frankly, it's kind of miraculous that this movie even exists, that it was given the budget it was by a major studio, and that it is coming out this week, of all weeks! Because this film is of the moment, and for the moment. I have a constant, nagging fear that somehow it's going to get shut down at the last minute. So maybe get your butt to a theater sooner than later my friends. It's the movie of the year.

Another movie this week that owes a debt to the Coen Brothers, is Dead of Winter, in which Emma Thompson goes full Fargo, complete with the accent, the snow, and a wild kidnapping plot, though in this case, she simply stumbles upon one, and decides to try and free the victim herself. 

The film lays out its clues slowly. Just why is she out there all alone looking for a desolate lake to go ice fishing in? Just who is this girl that appears to be held against her will? What is up with the crazy couple (played by Judy Greer and Marc Menchaca) that are holding her captive, and what do they plan to do to her?

There's nothing terrible original about any of it, but the fun comes in seeing someone like Emma Thompson taking on what is essentially an action role, albeit one where the heroine has to use her wits more than her might to save the day.