4 stars out of 5
Maybe Trump caught an early screening of this before they started sending National Guard troops against U.S. citizens. We start 16 years ago (but it might have been yesterday), when a band of revolutionaries are freeing detained immigrants. These anti-fascists include Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor (who I’ve only seen in Coming 2 America), Avon Barksdale, and my girl Alana Haim who we all loved in PTA’s previous flick, Licorice Pizza.
Teyana uses sex as a weapon against Sean Penn’s Colonel Lockjaw of the militarized police force, and he’s immediately smitten. Too bad she’s in love with Leo and they make a baby.
Cut to the present, our band of good-troublemakers have spread to the four winds. Leo has raised the baby who has grown up into Willa (young actress Chase Infiniti) and they lead a fairly normal suburban life… until Col. Lockjaw, who just can’t get Teyana off his mind, reappears to screw things up. And just when Leo thought he was out, they pull him back in.
That’s more plot than I usually share but I felt you deserved it, because the trailer really doesn’t let you know anything at all. I basically went in blind to this 2 hour, 40 minute film because I trust DiCaprio and writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson. They rewarded my faith with a fun, smart, funny, exciting movie that held my attention all the way through.
What we have here is a satire of our modern far-right police state (though there’s nothing new under the sun, as this is based on the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon). We meet the Christmas Adventurers Club, an elite secret society of white supremacists including SNL legend Jim Downey and Kevin Tighe a.k.a. DeSoto from Emergency! Anderson also explores the overlapping of personal and professional lives. Early on, we see Leo choose family over revolution, while Teyana makes the opposite choice. Later we see Lockjaw making military decisions, and devoting vast resources, based solely on his broken heart and his desire to impress the Christmas club. It’s frightening to think how many big bad actions are taken just because somebody got dumped.
The acting is top-notch. Leo is hilarious trying to reconnect with the cloak-and-dagger world, but also shows great sweetness as the loyal dad. Benicio del Toro is fantastic as the local karate sensei who is quietly harboring immigrants. He is a born leader, unfailingly positive, and someone you always want on your side. And has Sean Penn played a nasty soldier since Casualties of War? He’s very funny here.
The movie looks great and sounds great (thanks Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and several well-chosen popular songs), and contains I think the most action sequences we’ve seen from PTA. He’s good at it! A career in Hollywood is certainly one battle after another, but this is a decisive victory for Paul Thomas Anderson.
being underrated is overrated
Jack Silbert, curator