In a hiccup beginning of One Battle After Another, act one happening before the main title, superimposed words inform of Otay Mesa Immigration Detention Centre, detainees all Latinos, and set on the US-Mexico border.
Freedom fighters calling themselves France 75 are considered urban terrorists by the government and they’re determined to “put on a show”, a distraction without gunplay to rescue people they perceive as illegally detained.
The objective is for America to be one day “free from fear.”
We meet three important characters within the raid.
Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), femme fatale, and Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), explosives expert, have a relationship, the kind a crowbar couldn’t lever apart.
Her mouth spouts more foul language than a rubbish bin overflowed with discarded Paul Thomas Anderson dialogue.
Deandra, pistol in hand, first confronts Colonel Steven J Lockjaw, an ominous name (Sean Penn), and a most despicable villain not seen since Benicio del Toro’s Oscar-winning turn in No Country for Old Men.
Lockjaw, a weather-faced army veteran, has mastered his menacing art form of dispatching Latinos from whence they came.
In this clash of differing ideologies, it’s not always clear determining who’s bad, who’s good, and who’s supposed to be supported.
Though apparently set today, the film has the look of a movie made in the 70s, like William Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971) or Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973), when independent filmmakers fuelled creativity, not dollars but were unfettered by the Hollywood Studio System of Louis B Mayer or Jack Warner.
Even the main title looked like something scrawled in the 70s.
There were instances when Sean Penn channelled Robert De Niro’s various gangster personifications, but walk and stature was always pseudo-military as developed by Penn. He doesn’t appear to have aged well.
Leonardo DiCaprio similarly channelled Jack Nicholson for some wide-eyed facial expression and occasional line delivery without Nicholson’s distinctive inflection.
Nothing wrong with actors “borrowing” business from other professionals, but these contributed to the film’s appearance of having been made in the 70s style of movies with sufficient action, thrills, and sometime convoluted plotting.
Following initial action, via voice over, the story jumps 16 years.
Bob has a daughter, Willa (newcomer Chase Infiniti) with Perfidia who, following a crime spree, is captured and makes a deal to betray her comrades.
Willa, as Bob and Perfidia’s daughter, causes a resurfacing of evil enemy Lockjaw in need of vengeance and a positive confirmation of patrimony after his earlier encounter with Perfidia.
When police and villainous Lockjaw make massive effort to capture members of France 75, mostly Willa and her Dad, Bob is, by this time, a washed-up revolutionary living in a state of drug-induced paranoia, barely a survivor with his spirited self-reliant daughter.
Willa’s martial arts instructor is Sensei Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro) who comes to hers and Bob’s aid when Lockjaw and police pursue. Deandra (Regina Hall) is a core member of France 75, honest and committed to the force’s integrity; a fugitive, she is crucial in protecting Willa from antagonist Lockjaw.
The final act occurs on a roller coaster road in the desert where extraordinary cinematography captures every action, all moments of gritty tension.
With the Coen brothers doing their separate things, Paul Thomas Anderson, writer and director, may be carrying the torch for this kind of weird, dark, neo-noir gothic Americana. It could very well be an Oscar-worthy Best Picture nomination, Director nom, as well as a Supporting Actor nom for Sean Penn’s calibrated character Col Lockjaw.
Action your thing? Don’t leave your brain at the door, take it with you.
