Review: 'One Battle After Another'

In some circles, a new movie from Paul Thomas Anderson is hailed in much the same way citizens of a small, quaint village celebrating a religious feast day might greet a saint’s statue, bedecked with flowers, as it wheels through on a little cart. Because Anderson is known, and revered, for making Important Movies with Serious Themes ( There Will Be Blood, The Master ), those who consider themselves serious film people greet each new arrival as an Important Event. Though it’s nice to be respected, that isn’t a comfortable space for a filmmaker to live in, especially in an era when movies are being taken less and less seriously. Now that so many people watch movies at home, they’re becoming indistinguishable from television to many consumers; it’s all stuff that pours through the portal o