Michael's Movie Grade: C
An okay thriller but well below what I have come to expect from Paul Thomas Anderson's films.
This movie works best as a straightforward thriller. The action scenes are very well done, and PTA's direction of these scenes are as great as you would expect from such a master. The climatic action scene is especially exciting. PTA also manages to keep visual interest throughout, and this is a very handsome looking film. Though the characters are quite underwritten (and few of them are likable), the all-star cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti) all lend their movie star charm to the role.
While the melding of genres can often be one of PTA's greatest assets as a filmmaking, here it doesn't quite work. The tone feels all over the place and this keeps us from having any real emotional connection. It also doesn't help that the humor is often quite unfunny, and the political commentary is too surface level to ever make the audience actually think.
Paul Thomas Anderson as proven himself to be one of the greatest filmmakers working today, bringing us lots of masterpieces. So, if this new movie falls short of his best work, it will hardly leave even a small blemish on his filmography.
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