One Battle After Another

What a movie! This has all the feels; its funny, heart-breaking, tense, angry, sexy and insightful.

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In my opinion, it’s DiCaprio’s best performance. He’s clown-like in this, using his body in a comedic way, always too stoned to remember what he needs to. He gives us most of the laugh-out-loud moments.

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The writers swung for the fence with this and, in my opinion, succeeded. This film has a lot of colors. It shows us the reality of hispanic people in the US, it has a magnificent car chase, there are subversive nuns, a violent revolutionary who becomes a overly-cautious parent, and a durable underground of counter-culture resisters who are hiding in plain sight.  

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Every one of the major players is really well cast. Teyana Taylor was the perfect choice for Sean Penn’s character to fall for. Her looks are arresting and having recently retired from making music, she has become an excellent actor really quickly. Sean Penn plays a repressed military character that, he has said, made him laugh when he read the script for the first time. His performance is also exceptional.

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Benicio came into the filming late and had a bunch of great ideas that were taken on by director and which added a lot of depth and authenticity to the story. Knowing that most of his scenes were improvised, it is clear what a great actor he is.

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This film is about love, ultimately, but it's about so much more. There is Black power, woman power, resistance against the white-supremacist establishment and familial dynamics. 100% recommended.

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