One Battle After Another

⭐ 10/10

The hype was high, despite thinking Licorice Pizza was a dud, and this completely exceeded expectations. PTA rarely misses, and has made one of my all time favourites, and while this one may not be on the Mount Rushmore it was a wonderful time at the movies with friends. 

Since I basically have nothing negative to say (maybe the ending was a bit too nice/corny?) I can just list what is great. The acting, the score, the writing, the laughs, this movie has it all. But what I think will make this memorable for me is that it feels modern, of the moment. Seeing people in cages is bracing, and the scenes with Benicio wandering around the safe house comforting people on the corners of the screen felt way too real. But at its core this is a movie of a father trying to get back to his daughter, and I watched this waiting for the arrival of my daughter. Can't say I had the strongest emotional connection in that way, but it was timely, and the frantic energy of Leo throughout this felt perfect. I love the idea of this washed up radical almost having to take on "one last job", but in this case is on the run from the consequences of his former life.

Again, the craft of this movie is impossible to deny. The final car chase is like nothing I have ever seen, artistic and thematic but also action packed with an unexpected conclusion. This whole movie is filled to the brim with artistic choices, but it is also incredibly propulsive and funny! I love evil cabals of powerful people, and the one here is probably the best in recent memory. Completely goofy name, with a high dose of self-importance and silliness. There is a line near the end that one of them utters that will never leave my head. I haven't even mentioned Sean Penn, who completely stole the show as the villain. I love the cat-and-mouse with Leo, but this movie plays with that in a unique way.

I've been thinking about this non-stop since I saw it, humming Steely Dan and chuckling at remembered line deliveries. Feels like a movie that would reward rewatches, with well-crafted conversations and many thematic parallels and choices between characters. Give this movie all the awards, it deserves them. I hesitate to say its "important", since that is pretentious, but this feels like cinematic art in a way many of the best movies do. It is also current in a way almost no movies are, speaking to our moment in time without beating you over the head with over-explained morals or traumatic backstories.