Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" scored a leading nine nominations to the 83rd Golden Globe Awards on Monday, adding to the Oscar favorite's momentum and handing Warner Bros. a victory amid Netflix's acquisition deal. In nominations announced from Beverly Hills, California, "One Battle After Another" landed nods for its cast-Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, and Chase Infiniti-and for Anderson's screenplay and direction.
They tried to warn us PTA doesn't miss. One Battle After Anotherearned the National Board of Review's top honor this year, adding a third Best Film award to the shelf (next to all the karate trophies). In addition to Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson, Leonardo DiCaprio won Best Actor, Chase Infiniti won Breakthrough Performance, and Benicio Del Toro won Best Supporting Actor, again, after earning it from the New York Film Critics Circle.
Regina Hall's inherent Regina Hall-ness - her magnetic fusion of poise and charisma - never shows in One Battle After Another. Instead of that usual charm, Hall is sober-minded and serious. As Deandra, a guerilla involved with a revolutionary sect called the French 75, she's waging war against oppression, whether that's militarized police, migrant detention camps, Christmas-worshipping white nationalists, or fascism at large.
If the experience of watching One Battle is so propulsive that you leave the theater feeling like you haven't taken a breath in hours, Vineland is far more digressive, switching genres by the page, with a plot that's more varied than the relatively simple man-tries-to-rescue-daughter story of One Battle. For one thing, Vineland has significant supernatural elements, including the existence of a class of person called a Thanatoid-souls caught between life and death.
