All the Battles Worth Watching, One after Another

We spent a long chunk of time yesterday watching One Battle After Another. It's a movie that's been out for awhile, but only recently free to stream on Amazon Prime. I had forgotten how long it was, but happily, we started it in the late afternoon, not at 7:30 at night.It wasn't until the later part of the movie, during one of the long (LONG) car chases that I became aware of how long it was taking to finish the movie. It was compelling from the beginning until close to the end, compelling in ways that surprised me.I was impressed with all the chunks of narrative that did manage to come together. Paul Thomas Anderson deserved those Oscars for best director and best adapted screenplay. There were moments when I did some math to try to figure out the revolutionary aspect of it all--if the daughter is 16 or 17, then the revolutionaries were active in 2008 or 2009? The planting of bombs in government buildings and calling in bomb threats from a pay phone seemed so 1972 to me, but clearly,…