Paul Thomas Anderson is one of Hollywood's great time travelers. He took us to turn-of-the-century oil country in There Will Be Blood , the 1950s London fashion world in Phantom Thread , and the '70s San Fernando Valley, twice, in Boogie Nights and Licorice Pizza .

One Battle After Another is Anderson's first film in ages set in the present day, and partly for that reason, it grabs you and even smacks you in the face in a way that his other movies haven't. It's a prescient, mesmerizing, frequently hilarious and fearlessly political piece of work. It's also an action thriller staged on an epic canvas, with harrowing gunfights, daring rooftop escapes and poundingly visceral car chases, including one, staged on a rolling desert highway, that must be seen to be believed.

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