Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Regina Hall and, in her film debut, Chase Infiniti, is already making waves among critics. Following its initial premieres, it has earned rave reviews, for its dystopian take on politics and race relations, the stellar acting, its cinematography, and its particularly prescient use of humor in creating narrative tension and exaggerating what would otherwise be unsettling scenarios. Although, it may not be all that comical once you put them in perspective.
One Battle After Another revolves around Bob Ferguson (Leonardo), a father and ex-revolutionary struggling to protect his daughter Willa (Chase) from a soldier (Sean) hell bent on wiping out revolutionary and racial idealism. Other characters include Willa's mother Perfidia (Teyana), and some of Bob's accomplices, sensei Sergio (Benicio) and Deandra (Regina).
At an early screening of the film on September 22, which was attended by HELLO!, Paul, Leonardo, Teyana, Benicio and Chase spoke about the film's stark political themes, working together to create their characters, and how they see all its disparate elements come together to essentially also provide a mirror to society.
Leonardo, 50, commented during the Q&A after the screening on the film's "political extremism" and how it proves even more relevant in our current media climate, saying to Paul: "When I read the script, you did such a beautiful job of weaving in this political extremism that's going on in our world right now, this mirror of society." Watch the film's trailer below...
Specifically referencing the group the Christmas Adventurers club, a white supremacist cult-like gathering devoted to exterminating those who didn't meet their ideals, he continued: "We're in such a polarized world, and everyone's trying to belong somehow…even this idea of the Christmas Adventurers club, which is the most insane, masonic, racist cult you can ever imagine, but you think, 'Does something like this really exist?'"
"'Is there a place, this underground world with these foul men talking about cleansing society?' Jesus, there's something tactile about that's so scary, and felt so real," Leonardo added. "Within the context of that he made this epic story of certainly these three characters loving their neighbor, loving somebody in their community."
The Oscar-winning actor praised the "tremendous amount of humanity" outlined in the characters, pinpointing his own central idea of the film's "message" being not as much about tackling a political ideology, but human companionship and warmth, finding a sense of community the way Bob and Willa do when they're in peril.
"I hate to say that a film has a message," he quipped. "And Paul's not a writer-director that likes to make films that have a message. But for me, there's an undercurrent of being good to one another. Of helping each other out in the most hardest and polarized times, and that is a beautiful thing."
Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another is set for a wide theatrical release on Friday, September 26 in the United States.