How can something this important be this entertaining?

Whatever the code is, Paul Thomas Anderson has cracked it in “One Battle After Another,” a great film that feels like a throwback and an assessment of How Things Are and a dark premonition of the future, presented in a rollicking action-adventure story that starts fast and never slows down, with brilliant performances along the way.

Neat trick. Anderson pulls it off perfectly. It’s that rare film that allows you to laugh at the dumb antics of some of the characters, even as you despair over what they’re doing. (Sean Penn is especially good at that.)

This is the best movie of the year, at least so far, and one of Anderson’s best, ever.

What is 'One Battle After Another' about?

The film, loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 nove

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