One Battle After Another

First, this was nothing like the 30 pages and Wikipedia-ing of Vineland I read. The names are different, the action is different, the tone is different. I wondered how and why Leo would do the "downtrodden pothead", as I called Zoyd. That description isn't inaccurate for his character in the film, but it's also not how I'd choose to characterize him; he has a different flavor in the film; less groovy, more sharp. He's Leo, after all -- his whole expression is sharp. I don't think he does hippies like Joaquin in Inherent Vice and like the Zoyd I was perceiving in Vineland. He's fundamentally sharper, and he's fundamentally more heroic. He's a lead. So I thought it was strange he was doing a subdued character like this. It's not as subdued in the film, but it's still not a hero role. His daughter is really the hero, he just ends up being the supporter who's doing his best. Quite heartwarming, actually, in the end. So Leo gives up his hero streak, and Infiniti soars into and out the roof of the picture. She was awesome. Perhaps her role was easy, as far as serious acting goes -- who wouldn't root for her -- but she wasn't an established actor, and the role did demand a variety of intense things. Easy to root for her, but she exceeds that, she gets a whole ovation.

So I only read 30 pages of Vineland, but I also read a bit about it online, and I recall nothing about the revolutionary bit, nothing about any of this plot, in fact, other than downtrodden pothead Zoyd and his cocky lawman rival, like Inherent Vice. The adaptation must have been pretty loose.

Actually, PTA takes a Pynchon novel and a CV of unconventional movies and makes a fairly conventional movie. There's even a jump cut showing someone's face from baby to teenager. There's even a sweet father-daughter moment at the end with uppity music and she's being a rascal. There's even a basic-ass car chase! In a PTA movie! There's a bunch of military content... I'd say PTA robbed this from some more mainstream director, but he made this out of Vineland... he actually made Vineland more conventional, it seems to me, where typically I'd be expecting him to artsify his sources. PTA makes a pretty straightforward movie. And Leo, box office candy, joins. He picked an odd PTA movie to join. He'd be a towering Daniel Plainview or some other iconic role; I don't think this one will be iconic; I don't think it should be; the movie is too straightforward. I'd like to see Leo in a more iconic, more serious PTA movie. The last couple haven't been quite ambitious enough.

I'm calling it a solid movie. It was pretty gripping for being sort of silly. Sometimes the situation got a little too convoluted and went a little too long, but it was generally exciting. My heart was in it. I was deeply rooting for the protagonists, deeply despising the antagonists, deeply desiring resolution. Strange these are the things I'm saying about a PTA movie, but he played it straight.

There were some nice visuals, some nice musical scoring, though those were pretty secondary. Better than the average movie of this genre, but the movie wasn't very artsy. The story was too straightforward and engaging for me to really soak in the artistic qualities.

Sean Penn was one of the more detestable specimens I've seen in recent cinematic memory. Emphasis on specimen. And good for him, that was probably his charge -- to become a physical and spiritual wrecking ball for all that is good in the movie. He gives it his all, leaving no bicep unbulged, leaving no protagonist without the feeling of having been raped by his very presence.

I liked this movie quite a bit. It was weirdly heartwarming for being PTA+Pynchon. Weirdly not deeply ambiguous. The whole thing was propellant and charged, with soft undertones. It was enjoyable and engaging. That said, it's not interesting enough or emotional enough to be a favorite. It's just a solid PTA movie that suits the mainstream better than most of his.

Leo is good. Oddly unheroic, but good.

Here's what I'm thinking:

Magnolia, There Will Be Blood

The Master, Punch-Drunk Love, Phantom Thread

One Battle After Another

Boogie Nights, Licorice Pizza

Inherent Vice

And even One Battle After Another, hovering around the mediocre center of his filmography, is at least a strong 3/4