Paul Thomas Anderson, the illustrious filmmaker behind modern classics like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood, is one of the few contemporary directors whose movies, upon theatrical release, become destination events. His latest, One Battle After Another, is one you’ll really want to see in its proper habitat. It’s PTA’s first movie filmed in the IMAX format, which is weird but good news.
The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson, a former civil rights revolutionary on the run from his nemesis, a white supremacist ex-military wingnut played by Sean Penn. Newcomer Chase Infiniti plays Bob’s daughter, Willa, and Benicio del Toro is a fellow activist named Sensei Sergio. Regina Hall and Teyana Taylor round out the main cast. The film is said to be inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, which traces a similar story arc.
What follows is essentially a two-and-a-half-hour action thriller using the chase movie template, which should be fun to experience through the cinematic sensibilities of Paul Thomas Anderson. The film clearly has politics in the mix, and I suspect it’s significant that PTA chose a story built around desperation and urgency. Movie music nerds: Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood once again provides Anderson’s film score.
Speaking of music, the long-awaited mockumentary sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues hits theaters Sept. 12. All of the principal cast return, with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer reprising their roles as history’s greatest bad metal band. Rob Reiner is back as (actual) director and fictional filmmaker Marty Di Bergi. These four also collaborated on the script.
The bit is that the aging rockers—in their 70s and 80s now—have reunited for one final show. Will the creative team be able to pull off the magic of the first film? Probably not. But This is Spinal Tap has earned 40 years of accumulated goodwill and gifted us with songs like “Big Bottom” and “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight.” Plus, reports from earlier this year indicate that live concert footage was filmed at the actual Stonehenge site in England. Also note that several local theaters are hosting special screenings of the first film for proper frontloading.
A final option for musical theater fans: The Broadway supernova Hamilton is finally coming to theaters in September. The movie version is a “live capture” of a 2016 stage performance, with the original cast, at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway. Heads up that this is actually the same film that went to streaming platforms in 2020, when it was bumped from theaters because of the pandemic. The long-awaited big-screen release marks the stage musical’s 10th anniversary.
Quick Picks
The Cary Theater is hosting its annual Beyond Film Festival from Sept 11-14, featuring short films from local filmmakers along with a slate of curated shorts from around the world.
Lots of romance movie options this month, for some reason. The romantic fantasy A Big Bold Beautiful Journey stars Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell as two strangers who stumble into a series of interdimensional portals to key moments from their respective pasts.
For a romantic drama with some contemporary relevance, track down the indie Preparation for the Next Life from Chinese-American filmmaker Bing Liu. It’s a love story between an American soldier and a Uyghur migrant in New York City. U.S. immigration policy plays a role, and not in a good way. The film is based on the 2014 novel by Atticus Lish, which won the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Benedict Cumberbatch and the great Olivia Coleman play California-based British transplants in The Roses, a kinda-sorta remake of the 1989 film The War of the Roses with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. Like the first film, this is a pitch-black comedy about spousal warfare and not for the faint of heart. Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon add to all the vicious fun.
The indie comedy The Baltimorons provides a gentler rom-com option. Writer-director Jay Duplass tells the story of an improbable romance between a middle-aged dentist (Liz Larsen) and a newly sober comic (Michael Strassner) seeking emergency surgery on Christmas Eve. With a premise like that, you have to root for this movie.
Finally, manga fans will be happy to hear that several local theaters have booked the animated dark action epic Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. Part of a sprawling multimedia franchise spanning TV, video games, and comic books, it’s Japan’s biggest movie of the year by far and a pretty big deal among genre fans. For the uninitiated but courageous, it’s a chance to see what non-American global blockbusters look like.
To comment on this story, email [email protected].