Every day we wake up to a divided nation. Anti-immigration sentiment is at an all-time high. White privilege has never been more prevalent and has inserted itself into the nation’s capital. Elected officials use BS excuses to invade our cities and shut down free speech. At this point, all we can do is laugh about the state of the country. Thankfully, that’s exactly what Paul Thomas Anderson does in his cathartic satirical triumph, One Battle After Another.

With a filmmaker behind such heavy cinematic masterpieces as There Will Be Blood or Magnolia, one may assume that One Battle After Another would be a heady prestige tragedy or an intense thriller. Surprisingly, Anderson has taken the source material behind author Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland and adapted it into a pretty hilarious, yet poignant and relevant, satire that brilliantly encapsulates the shocking current state of America.

Essentially, PTA’s latest is an offbeat hybrid between Sicario and The Big Lebowski, which, as ridiculous as it sounds, is exactly the type of film we need at present.

One Battle After Another centers on a former revolutionary named Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), who spent the best years of his life freeing detained immigrants and creating non-lethal pyrotechnics against corrupt US institutions alongside his lover Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), with whom he shares a daughter.

During one of their missions, Perfidia gets herself involved with Col. Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), a horrifyingly racist and brutal man who takes pride in rounding up Mexican immigrants and having his thuggish army kill those who stand in his way. After getting arrested, she rats out Bob, her daughter, and her entire group to Lockjaw and his men, leaving Bob to flee into hiding with his infant daughter, Willa. Sixteen years later, Lockjaw finds Bob and Willa (Chase Infiniti), and decides to go after both of them to rectify some unfinished business he had with Perfidia, Bob, and their revolutionary group.

I won’t lie. The movie actually gets a lot more complex as more becomes revealed about the Ferguson family and Lockjaw. More characters and narrative complications are added to the overarching story as things progress, with the real story actually only starting about 30 minutes into the film. However, despite the complex machinations at play, the film starts out engrossing and never stops.

The first act establishes important stakes, characters, and relationships that are essential for the rest of the film to truly progress, and for the audience to get invested in the situations and these characters. They’re essential to understand Bob’s state of mind following his revolutionary days.

To start a movie out with a revolutionary group going into an immigration detention facillity to break out a huge population of families and kids who were rounded up by the film’s equivalent of ICE sets the incredibly blunt statement about how Anderson sees the world. It’s a tense scene that hits home hard. Then to see things later escalate to sequences where Lockjaw sends in planted soldiers to pretend to be violent anarchists during a peaceful protest, just so he could get the jurisdiction to attack and enact martial law, is not only shocking, but ridiculously prescient.

One Battle After Another showcases how someone like Lockjaw, in a position of power, commanding an army of troops, can falsify the situation to suit his own benefit, deceiving the public and fabricating excuses to attack innocents for his own selfish reasons. You get angry and sick watching it because, sadly, we’re living it.

Therefore, you must give the film and Anderson credit for being tremendously bold. Like the protagonists in the story, he makes One Battle After Another a truly cutting and outspoken takedown of the state of America today, and a condemnation of White racist elite groups populated by people at the highest levels of power. This is demonstrated through his creation of the fictional group, the Christmas Adventurers Club; a buffoonish, elitist group of White supremacists that Lockjaw is hoping to join, which even includes the likes of Roy Moore.

The cartoonish nature and hilarious lack of self-awareness depicted within these characters, coupled with the terrifying amount of power they have, alongside their ability to keep themselves secretive skewers the all too real idea of groups like this existing underground, and scarily influencing the state of the world today. So to touch on that subject with irreverence and ridiculousness at least allows us to enjoy and laugh at the scenario in a cathartic way.

The absurdity in which Anderson also approaches DiCaprio’s character, Bob Ferguson, is also a joy to watch. Bob, traumatized by the betrayal and possible death, of his former lover has dealt with the pain of his losses through heavy substance abuse. He goes from an astute demolitionist to a Lebowski-esque burnout with memory issues. It’s such a hilarious performance from DiCaprio, combining the insecurity and vulnerability he had as Rick Dalton, with a much more laid back and incompetent demeanor.

Despite this, however, he demonstrates a strong emotional core that keeps him motivated to save his daughter and stick it to Lockjaw, no matter the cost. It’s a charming performance and a fun character with a strong arc, thanks to Anderson’s ability to make the character redeeming and appealing.

That said, I believe the standout performance in the movie does belong to newcomer, Infiniti, playing Willa Ferguson, Bob’s daughter. Infiniti delivers a strong, quiet performance, perfectly demonstrating that she’s clearly the adult in her household, but also a vulnerable and normal teenager who is trying to figure out who she is with the limited information she has about her family’s history. She’s a tough character and a true fighter, and Infiniti imbues the character with a fierce and defiant spirit that makes her, practically, the best hero in the film. Willa is smart, resilient, and tough as hell, as we see her willing to take on bigger opponents to save herself, and ultimately take over the fight her father once believed in.

While they aren’t together on screen for much of the film, the beating heart of the movie comes down to a very touching, and well written relationship between Bob and Willa. She becomes a stronger character, who figures out confidently who she is by the end of the movie, and she also makes Bob a better character after he’s lost so much. To have a bi-racial character be the focal point of this movie, and fighting against the tyranny of White racists in power, like Penn’s character, is a boon for POC representation in media during a time when the real-life government is targeting POCs in general. And yet, in addition to making a statement, the father-daughter connection between the two is still sweet and touching. It’s a great balance struck by good writing on Anderson’s part, and great performances through DiCaprio and Infiniti.

The supporting cast is also terrific. Penn gives a very menacing performance, akin to Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds, but without any of the charm and all of the awkwardness. He plays Lockjaw perfectly: cowardly, boorish, yet dangerous. You absolutely hate him, and are happy to laugh at him and satisfied by his fate. Benicio Del Toro shows up as Bob’s friend and Willa’s sensei, Sergio St. Carlos, playing the character with a cool, hilarious, and fearless demeanor, as he’s ready to take on the man and commit himself to his friends. And finally Regina Hall plays one of Bob and Perfidia’s friends, Deandra, showcasing her dramatic range, as one of the few hopes Willa has for survival. It’s a type of performance we don’t normally get from Hall, but an effective and necessary one for the development of Willa’s character. An additional highlight, as well, is Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills. While only in the first act of the movie, Taylor leaves a lasting impression for the rest of it, with a fearless performance filled with empathy and tragedy. What she does, how she does it, and how it affects her and her family afterwards is completely devastating, and yet, we still in some ways understand why Bob fell in love with Perfidia, thanks to Taylor’s impressive performance.

The score for the movie is also astonishing, thanks to Radiohead lead guitarist and frequent Anderson collaborator, Jonny Greenwood. It’s grand, bombastic, and urgent, contributing to the sense of urgency and relentless action that’s appearing on screen. This compliments the up-close and gritty cinematography of Anderson and collaborator Michael Bauman, who keep the camera moving to fully immerse the audience into the tense situations, following our characters and their attempts to escape and save one another. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, but also creates a sense of chaos that is absurdly hilarious at the same time. There is a lot going on, and that’s the point, given the pressure on the heroes in the movie. However, melodically and visually. Anderson and Greenwood keep the flow of the movie persistent, coherent, and engaging.

There’s several incredible action sequences that are incredibly suspenseful thanks to Anderson and Bauman’s visuals and grit. One incredibly tense scene at the end makes use of a desolate desert highway and its multiple hills, gripping you and keeping you on the edge of your seat about what’s bound to happen next. Another scene showcases the all too real chaos of a protest under attack as Bob is trying to hilariously flee on rooftops with a group of teenage revolutionaries. There’s also a very scary and well shot bank robbery sequence that goes awry, as Anderson puts you in the vehicles of his characters, bolting down busy and dangerous intersections recklessly. It keeps the movie exciting, while never sacrificing the absurdity and humor, or the strong political themes.

Overall, One Battle After Another is PTA at his finest. A defiant and outspoken movie that condemns anti-immigration policies, White elitism, and the abuse of power in every frame of the movie. Filled with engrossing, complex characters, intense and gritty action sequences, and moments of laugh-out-loud absurdism, the film is a perfect combination of entertaining and relevant. At almost three hours, it never feels its length, keeping you interested and engaged with every chapter, as we connect with the stories and relationship between Bob, played by a pitch-perfect hilarious DiCaprio, and Willa Ferguson; an astonishing breakout performance from Infiniti.

Well-acted, well-written, well-directed, and above all, well-spoken, it’s rare in this industry to find a movie that we both desperately need and want. One Battle After Another is one of the year’s best, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it on the short list for the Oscars next year.

Overall Score (on an entertainment level): A
Overall Score (on a representation level): A