I found myself reminded of a few films while watching “One Battle After Another,” and all of those pictures are absolute classics. There are strong echoes of “No Country for Old Men” and hints of “Goodfellas.” At times, director Paul Thomas Anderson recalls his own masterpiece, “There Will Be Blood.”

Time will tell if this film, an epic journey through sun-bleached violence and conspiratorial absurdity, rises to the reputation of those points of reference. Undoubtedly, though, “One Battle After Another” is more than the sum of its considerable parts; it is a blend of humor, drama, action, social commentary and character study that adds up to convey something elemental about the contemporary American psyche.

It’s also entertaining as hell — a quality that doesn’t always accompany movies w

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