One Battle After Another - 13 nominations

 

Best Casting: Cassandra Kulukundis
Best Achievement in Cinematography: Michael Bauman
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score): Jonny Greenwood
Best Sound: José Antonio García, Christopher Scarabosio, Tony Villaflor
Best Motion Picture of the Year: Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Achievement in Directing: Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Leonardo DiCaprio
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Benicio Del Toro
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Sean Penn
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Teyana Taylor
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Achievement in Production Design: Florencia Martin (production designer), Anthony Carlino (set decorator)
Best Achievement in Film Editing: Andy Jurgensen

How about a year when 13 nominations isn’t even the most nominations a picture has received? Well, that’s exactly what you get in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film. PTA is a little all over the place for me - some of his movies are bafflingly good (like this one and Boogie Nights) and others are The Master.

Let me tell you a little bit about this very exciting plot. “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills are young activists and revolutionaries reminiscent of the Weather Underground. They pull off an explosive action to release detained immigrants that could well be defined as domestic terrorism, despite its noble intent. Before they do, Perfidia meets and humiliates commanding officer, Steven Lockjaw who continues to hunt the members of their group for the next 16 years. He will not rest until they are all dead.

Perfidia has a baby, Charlene, but she refuses to change her lifestyle and leaves. Meanwhile, Pat and Charlene flee and become Bob and Willa, hiding from the danger Pat knows will always hunt him. Years pass, and Bob has become a tired and rundown paranoid couch dweller, while his teenage daughter has thrived but has been raised with an off the grid paranoia. When danger comes to his doorstep, he runs, and Willa is taken from her high school to an out of town order of revolutionary nuns. Once he is able, Bob mounts a quest to find his daughter and reunite with her.

And, as is true with all PTA films, I left out quite a bit of the plot, because all of this is to say, you should watch this movie. Simplistic on its face, it asks all the important questions about governmental overreach, domestic terrorism, resistance in the face of injustice, the role of white supremacy, immigration, and more. What does lawlessness look like from those with unchecked power, and what is the appropriate and rational response to it? At its core, the film examines how commitment—to art, to politics, to other people—evolves over time, and whether persistence itself can still count as a form of victory.

This is no popcorn movie, but it is worth every minute of your time. If you don’t finish and do just a little bit of questioning of your own lens and politics, then either the film hasn’t done its job, or you haven’t.