Grab your gas masks, secure your devices, and memorize your code words, because Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the greatest working auteurs, is lighting up cinemas with an explosive, tear gas-soaked stunner that spans generations.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor lead a group of revolutionaries called the French. Some of their activities? Freeing detained immigrants. Setting off bombs. Robbing banks. Threatening politicians. But it’s no secret to them that being a revolutionary is a dangerous game, especially when a fetish-driven military officer (played by Sean Penn) is hellbent on thwarting their plans.
From its opening minutes, the film ignites with the fury of a Molotov cocktail and maintains its propulsive energy and fist-raising power for the entire 162-minute duration. In a change of pace from some of Paul Thomas Anderson’s more deliberate films, this one is packed with exhilarating action, high-speed chase sequences, and violent combat. And even when the film takes moments to inhale and exhale, it’s never, ever boring.
The excellent screenplay, which is loosely inspired by a Thomas Pynchon novel, comes locked and loaded with spirited dialogue, and the kinetic plot runs through a plethora of twists, turns, and tunnels (sometimes literally). It’s all so incredibly well-shot and impeccably staged. Paul Thomas Anderson instills each scene with a jittery sense of both paranoia and perspiration, and music choices along the way are just perfect.
Leonardo DiCaprio is the pulse of the film and brings his A-game to a role that seems tailored just for him. He’s really, really funny here, especially amid his characters’ washed-up, stoner dad era. Every scene of him talking on the phone is comic gold. Teyana Taylor, despite having a very small amount of screen time, exudes a ferocity that practically cracks the glass of the cameras. Even when she’s not there, you still think about her. Benicio Del Toro, fresh off his exquisite performance in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, brings the cool as a wise “Sensei” fighting the good fight and giving secret sanctuary to immigrants. Sean Penn gives one of his best-ever performances. In fact, it’s disturbing how good it is. And newcomer Chase Infiniti makes an impressive big-screen debut.
This isn’t Paul Thomas Anderson’s first political film per se, but it might be his most urgent and confrontational. It takes on authoritarianism. It takes on white supremacy. It takes on complacency. What makes the film feel so classic and so masterful is the fact that, no matter the decade of its release, it would still be relevant. At one point, following a significant time jump, a narrator says, “Not much has changed.” It’s why the revolution continues on. One battle after another.
* 10/10 *
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