"We have a lot of ways to describe the sense that human events occur in recurring patterns, and that the struggles between things like freedom and slavery or tolerance and hatred will endure even longer than the contest between good and evil that Robert Mitchum taught us about in Night of the Hunter. It can be easy to let this cyclical perspective slide into a cynical one, and on one level, including its title, Paul Thomas Anderson's new film One Battle After Another fits that bill."
"We first meet Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio, in full flower) in what seems to be the late aughts, during a doorkicker of an opening sequence in which he (as the pyrotechnics expert) and his fellow members of French 75, a domestic terrorist organization, invade an immigrant detention facility and free its occupants. In the course of this bravura raid, French 75's leader, Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) confronts the officer in charge,"
One Battle After Another follows Bob Ferguson, a former pyrotechnics expert for French 75, a domestic terrorist group that raids an immigrant detention facility and frees its occupants. The raid produces a confrontation in which leader Perfidia Beverly Hills sexually humiliates Colonel Steven Lockjaw, creating his decades-long obsession. A subsequent bank robbery leads to Perfidia's capture and leaves Bob with sole custody of their baby. Sixteen years later Bob has retreated from radical action, burned-out and perma-stoned, struggling with ordinary life yet carrying the legacy of past militancy. The film blends brutal comedy with a meditation on recurring political struggles.
Read at Oregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]