CALL TO ARMS...

STAR-STUDDED ACTION THRILLER COULD FINALLY LAND ACCLAIMED DIRECTOR PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON AN ACADEMY AWARD

- REVIEWS BY DAMON SMITH

PAUL Thomas Anderson is one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers working today.

Seven of his nine feature films have been lavished with multiple Oscar nominations, including Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza.

He has personally accrued eight nominations for his direction and screenwriting, but is yet to claim a coveted golden statuette for impeccable work behind the camera.

That losing streak is likely to change with One Battle After Another, a consummately choreographed action thriller loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland about a ragtag group of activists fighting oppression.

Anderson assembles an impressive ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio as a paranoid, stoner ex-revolutionary who cannot recall the correct response to the code-worded question “What time is it?”.