One Battle After Another

The premiere of a new Paul Thomas Anderson film is always an event. Four years after Licorice Pizza, Battle After Battle arrives in theaters, a loose adaptation of the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon (whose novel Inherent Vice Anderson had already adapted). Leonardo DiCaprio, finally collaborating with PTA, plays Bob Ferguson, a lost ex-revolutionary and father of teenager Willa, whom he raised alone after the disappearance of his partner, also a member of the French 75 group. When the enemy, in the form of Steve Lockjaw (Sean Penn), resurfaces 16 years later and kidnaps Willa, Bob asks his old comrades for help to save her.