“When their evil enemy” — played by Sean Penn? — “resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunites to rescue somebody’s” — presumably Leonardo Di Caprio‘s — “daughter”. Whatever.

Thomas Pynchon‘s “Vineland” was set in 1984, of course. But Paul Thomas Anderson‘s film (Warner Bros., 9.26) is set…does it matter?

I’m not feeling this. I’m not sensing an interest on the part of the filmmakers to convey a basic push-pull situation that feels like the basis of a story.

Set in the northwest, One Battle After Another appears to set in the present tense (as indicated by the cars) but the pay phone…are there pay phones anywhere these days? Even in the boonies? The last time I was in rural Colorado…seven months ago…I didn’t see a single one.

The armed revolutionaries are lefties, of course, but what’s the plan or goal exactly? Whoever cut this trailer together doesn’t want us to know. It feels a bit scattered, chaotic. I know there have been screenings here and there, and I’ve read about a three-hour-plus length.