AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson loves desperate characters, like the frenzied capitalist in "There Will Be Blood" and the anxious romantic in "Punch-Drunk Love." Anderson's new film, "One Battle After Another," centers on a panicked revolutionary. Critic Bob Mondello says that by the final credits, he's become so frantic, the film practically vibrates.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Bob is stoned when we meet him.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
LEONARDO DICAPRIO: (As Bob Ferguson) What I'm doing here is I'm creating a closed circuit.
MONDELLO: But then, that would have been true no matter when we met him.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
DICAPRIO: (As Bob Ferguson) Very important to keep your cap shunted like this so you don't accidentally detonate your charge.
MONDELLO: He and his no-nonsense girlfriend, Perfidia Beverly Hills, are among the revolution-minded Californians in the early 2000s who call themselves the French 75. Perfidia, played by Teyana Taylor, is the group's fiercest warrior.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
TEYANA TAYLOR: (As Perfidia Beverly Hills) I killed them dead.
MONDELLO: And Bob, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is their explosives guy...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
TAYLOR: (As Perfidia Beverly Hills) I want you to create a show.
MONDELLO: ...Meaning fireworks.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
TAYLOR: (As Perfidia Beverly Hills) This is an announcement of revolution.
MONDELLO: When the group liberates an immigration detention center, he creates distractions while Perfidia neutralizes camp commander Lockjaw, who certainly lives up to that name, played by Sean Penn. He's ramrod straight and - how can I say this delicately? - not just with regard to posture. He's got a thing for Perfidia, and she's just the woman to weaponize her allure.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
SEAN PENN: (As Steven Lockjaw) I'll be seeing you very soon.
TAYLOR: (As Perfidia Beverly Hills) Not if I see you first.
MONDELLO: The group members also rob banks, live their lives, all with varying levels of commitment. Bob's into family building, Perfidia into revolution - never more persuasively than when she's about 11 months pregnant, firing an automatic weapon in the desert.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) What are you going to do about this baby?
MONDELLO: Flash forward to today. Perfidia's long since gone underground, leaving Bob, who is still as stoned as ever, to raise Willa. She is now a savvy 16-year-old, played by Chase Infiniti, and she's chafing under Bob's lifelong paranoia that his past will come back to haunt her.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
DICAPRIO: (As Bob Ferguson) Sorry.
CHASE INFINITI: (As Willa Ferguson) I didn't ask for this. That's just how the cards were rolled out for me.
DICAPRIO: (As Bob Ferguson) It's not cards. You don't roll cards. It's dice.
INFINITI: (As Willa Ferguson) Dad, what is wrong with you?
MONDELLO: Things would be fine if Lockjaw weren't still out there looking for them, getting closer, too, as he curries favor with a bunch of military racial purity zealots, white nationalist creeps who call themselves the Christmas Adventurers, a name filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson uses to make them appear as laughable as they are horrifying.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) We are here to award Steven Lockjaw with the medal of honor.
MONDELLO: Now, you'll notice - and we're still in the film's first half hour or so - that Anderson's doing a lot of hot-button pushing here - immigration politics, leftist fanatics, reactionary extremists, racism, a militarized state, not to mention father-daughter tropes - in an action thriller he's made so propulsive it's sometimes hard to keep your wits about you. Hard for poor reefer-addled Bob, too, when he needs to call for help from the French 75 after all these years.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
DAN CHARITON: (As Comrade Josh) What time is it?
DICAPRIO: (As Bob Ferguson) Let's just not nitpick over the password stuff. Look, this is Bob Ferguson, all right? I need the rendezvous point.
CHARITON: (As Comrade Josh) What time is it?
MONDELLO: DiCaprio gets funnier as Bob's desperation grows, whether he's galumphing after skateboarders, dashing across rooftops or diving from car windows to escape the police...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Jump on four. Bob. Slow down.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Just like Tom Cruise.
MONDELLO: ...All while Anderson is inventing new genres on the fly - cartoonish and deadly serious - while sending characters careening down undulating desert highways in a uniquely nerve-jangling cinematic car chase.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONDELLO: With "There Will be Blood," "Magnolia" and "Boogie Nights" glistening on the director's resume, it would take a brave critic to claim that this is Paul Thomas Anderson's best film yet, but I guess I'm a brave critic. "One Battle After Another" is thrilling, hilarious, moving, politically scary as hell and Paul Thomas Anderson's best film yet. I'm Bob Mondello. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
