Welcome back to Flick Picks, your twice-monthly movie fix. This installment serves up a wild new Paul Thomas Anderson thriller, a dog drama that hits grown-up emotional depths, a timeless romantic classic and a simple treat to share with your pup while you watch.
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In “One Battle After Another,” Leonardo DiCaprio plays an ex-revolutionary on a mission to rescue his daughter from a corrupt military official. Sounds simple, right? A gritty action thriller with intense performances, some political undertones and a little revenge for good measure.
But this is a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, which means what could’ve been a throwback genre flick is instead something far stranger – and sharper.
“One Battle” kicks off with DiCaprio’s character, Ghetto, and his Black girlfriend, Perfida, breaking immigrants out of a detainment center in California. This also is where we meet commanding officer Steven Lockjaw – a far-right military man played by Sean Penn who becomes sexually obsessed with Perfida.
You might already be asking yourself, “How did this get made?” But I’m just getting started. Throw in a covert society of rich white supremacists called the Christmas Adventurers Club, crank every performance up to 11 (especially Penn’s) and unleash a drug-fueled but fiercely protective father into a battleground of immigrant defenders and militarized zealots – and you’ve still only hit the tip of the iceberg.
I’m not an Anderson superfan. I didn’t like his previous film, “Licorice Pizza,” at all. But “One Battle” flipped a switch for me. The story is nuts, but Anderson’s direction is so confident and precise that it never feels messy.
The cast is also excellent. DiCaprio leans harder into comedy than anyone else, giving his performance a fun edge. But the MVP is Penn. I can’t think of another film character I’ve despised more while being in awe of the acting. He builds something I don’t believe I’ve seen before. I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t get an Oscar nod.
And then there’s the climax – a chase sequence on rolling desert highways that’s so beautifully staged it’s worth the IMAX price alone. It’s not your typical high-octane set piece, but as someone who loves action movies, I’ve never seen anything like it.
“One Battle” wears its politics on its sleeve. It’s going to divide audiences. But ideally, it’ll also spark some thought – not just about where you stand, but how other people see the world, too.
New on streaming
What do many of the classic dog stories have in common? Think “Old Yeller,” “Where the Red Fern Grows” and “Sounder.” These books take on heavy themes, but they were written mostly for children. Through the eyes of loyal pups, they helped young readers face things like death, grief and moving on — tough stuff, but told in a way children could handle.
So where are the dog stories for grown-ups? Just because we’re adults doesn’t mean we don’t love animal stories, or that we can’t still take something meaningful from a good one.
I give you “The Friend” – a dog movie for adults. The poster shows Bill Murray and Naomi Watts standing behind a Great Dane, their faces solemn. You’d be forgiven for expecting a mildly touching family drama. But that’s not this film. “The Friend” drops F-bombs, tackles suicide head-on and digs so deep into its main character’s aching heart that it’s practically exploratory surgery.
It’s also a deeply felt, observant story about death, grief and moving on.
Watts plays Iris, a writer whose best friend Walter (Murray) has died by suicide. Not long after, Walter’s wife tells Iris he wanted her to have his massive Great Dane, Apollo. At first, Apollo is nothing but a headache – a “bad, bad dog,” as Iris fumes – but as she begins to face her own anger and pain and recognizes that Apollo is grieving, too, he shifts from nuisance to companion to true friend.
There are no goofy, Disney-style bonding scenes here. The connection between Iris and Apollo builds gradually – and that makes it hit harder. Both Watts and Murray are terrific. Murray, in particular, reminds you how good he can be when he steps into more dramatic territory. And the dialogue is just beautiful.
My challenge to you: watch “The Friend” without misting up. I know, some of you are hardened cynics – maybe you tossed “Old Yeller” aside as a kid without shedding a single tear. But if you’re willing to sit down with a film about a woman and a dog finding their way through loss together, I’m willing to bet that’s not you.
Streamed on Prime Video
From the vault
A woman steps outside a diner at a railway station just as a locomotive puffs past. A piece of grit flies into her eye. A stranger standing nearby gently removes it. Four weeks later, the two tortured souls who met by chance are torn apart, never to see each other again.
You might think I’ve just spoiled “Brief Encounter,” a 1945 British romantic drama, but the title does that for you. Written by Noël Coward and directed by David Lean, the film follows two married strangers in pre–World War II England whose accidental meeting at a railway station leads to a brief yet searing emotional affair.
What a treasure this film is. It opens with a lighthearted spat between a railway ticket clerk and a waitress at the station café. Then the camera pulls aside, focusing on a couple sitting together in quiet anguish. This is the scene that bookends the film, which ends where it began.
In between, Celia, a housewife and mother from a nearby town, and Trevor, a doctor from another city, fall deeply in love. Coward’s dialogue as they wrestle with the moral weight of their feelings and struggle to keep their affair from becoming physical is extraordinary. When Celia and Trevor are together, their speech takes on a poetic tone. But when Celia returns home to her decent yet uninspiring husband, her words and laughter turn sterile and generic.
Much of her real dialogue happens internally, as she sits in her living room staring at her husband, silently narrating the story she can never tell him. This part of her life will be locked away forever.
The performances are just as lyrical. Laura Jesson is stunning as Celia. The expression on her face after she tells her first lie to avoid suspicion is unforgettable. This is a film where characters struggle deeply with their indiscretions. But nothing matches the anguish etched on her face as she bids her lover a necessary, devastating goodbye.
I watched “Brief Encounter” without initially noting that Lean directed it – but in retrospect, it makes perfect sense. His use of diminishing light to signal Celia slipping into her thoughts, the artful rendering of nighttime streets with their enveloping shadows, and the way the couple keeps passing through those shadows – as if they’re destined to inhabit them forever – are brilliant. And without giving too much away, the final shot of Trevor leaving for good is one of the most affecting closing images I’ve seen in any film.
But I go on. “Brief Encounter” is like pulling a book of poetry from a shelf, opening it to a random page and discovering a passage so beautiful it brings tears to your eyes. You might wonder why you’d willingly put yourself through such heartbreak. But like great literature, it’s worth the pain.
Streamed on Prime Video
Rolling out the snacks
Instead of making a snack for yourself, try this treat for your pup while you enjoy some quality time watching “The Friend” together. Grab ? cup unsweetened applesauce, ½ cup smooth peanut butter and 2 cups oat flour. Combine the ingredients to form a dough, roll it out, cut it into shapes and bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. It’s that simple.