Legendary auteur Paul Thomas Anderson has made the film of the year with the incendiary, incisive and frequently quite funny “One Battle After Another,” which just happens to be a searing indictment of this particular moment in American history. Inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland” (this is his second Pynchon adaptation, after 2014’s “Inherent Vice”), Anderson transplants the novel’s Reagan-era revolutionary story to present day, loosely utilizing the general narrative and themes, but making it entirely his own. It is a film that is both chillingly prescient and deeply present in this contemporary milieu.

“One Battle After Another” feels like it could be about today, tomorrow or yesterday in America’s timeline, rooted not necessarily in real events but events that feel like they could, or should, be real.

The film opens in an immigration detention camp, as a band of left-wing political militants known as the French 75 infiltrate the facility to liberate the detained, and detain the military overseers. Enchanting rebel leader Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) locates Col. Stephen Lockjaw (Sean Penn) and relishes sexually humiliating him, something that he also relishes. It’s a dynamic of pleasure and violence that locks the pair into a long-standing exchange of sexual power that will ultimately lead to the dissolution of the French 75, and years of persecution for its members.

Perfidia’s partner is Pat (Leonardo DiCaprio), aka the Rocket Man, the French 75 explosives guy. She becomes pregnant, and when the baby is born, she beats a hasty retreat from motherhood, having chosen the right father for her child. You can’t say Pat wasn’t warned, as Perfidia’s mother tells him, “she’s a runner and you’re a stump.” No man could match her fiery and footloose energy.

Her story, a whirling dervish of montage, makes up the first act of the film, in which she runs risky operations while romancing her respective political paramours, betrays her comrades and disappears into thin air, leaving Pat and her baby girl to retreat into witness protection in the Northern California sanctuary city of Baktan Cross. Her daughter, renamed Willa (Chase Infiniti), grows into normal teenager who trains in martial arts and wants to hang out with her friends, chafing against the paranoia of her single father, now going by Bob, who won’t allow her to have a cellphone, and passes his time smoking weed in their remote cabin.

Bob’s is not garden-variety parental paranoia, though, because Lockjaw returns, and the French 75 have to knock the rust off their revolutionary skills in order to protect Willa from the maws of state-sanctioned violence that Lockjaw has mobilized in order to pluck the baby bird from her nest. Bob might be a washed-up old stoner, but he earned his stripes for a reason, and he will stop at nothing to save his daughter.

“One Battle After Another” is a tale of epic scope about the many shadowy networks and secretive factions that undergird our society while hiding in plain sight. He introduces not just the French 75, but an underground railroad for Latino immigrants run by Sensei Sergio (Benicio del Toro), a powerful white supremacist secret society, a racist backwoods militia, a convent of cannabis-cultivating nuns, all pulling the strings behind the scenes of American life. But Anderson balances the sprawling, conspiracy-minded aspects of this yarn with the intimate father-daughter story, which is the heart of the matter.

He reflects that blend of epic and intimate in the film’s style, working with cinematographer Michael Bauman. The film was shot on glorious VistaVision, a higher-resolution, widescreen variant of 35mm film, imbued with a thrillingly kinetic sense of movement — the camera follows closely behind our characters as they move swiftly through space, and sweeps over stunning vistas of burning cities and monumental land masses. A climatic car chase is hypnotically rendered, lulling, trancelike before a stunning finale. Even the aerial shots have the jiggle and quiver of a helicopter, not a drone. That something so enormously scaled is clearly handcrafted is deeply moving.

Jonny Greenwood’s score moves between soaring strings and dissonant piano keys, alternately soothing and anxious; a few pieces composed by Jon Brion add an ambient layer of wistfulness.

At the center of it all is DiCaprio as a bumbling dad, clad in an old robe and Solar Shields, and the performance he delivers is a harrowing, harried hoot, playing the hysterical foil to del Toro’s smooth sensei. The two men have different styles but the same goal: to keep their families intact.

“One Battle After Another” isn’t just an explosive revolutionary text but a story of fatherhood — the values we pass down to the next generation, and how we care for them, with love and generosity; with fear, anxiety, a little bit of hope, and above all, a whole lot of faith.

‘One Battle After Another’

4 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for pervasive language, violence, sexual content, and drug use)

Running time: 2:42

How to watch: In theaters on Friday, Sept. 26

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Snapchat videos led to the discovery of a group of Florida men who authorities say illegally captured, at least 14 alligators, skinning and killing many of them, with one man telling investigators he shot one animal with a Glock and made dinner with some of the meat.

Other videos found in the investigation show five dead alligators on the deck of an airboat, and two of the men standing over them, pistols in their hands, according to a just-released report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Jacob William Latreille, 21, of Mims, and several others illegally captured seven alligators on April 19, some by hand, snatching them from the front of a moving airboat, before killing most of them, FWC announced this week.

The agency said members of the group illegally took and killed at least seven more alligators between April 24 and May 11.

Latreille was arrested Monday on 13 charges of the illegal killing, possessing, or capturing of American alligators, his arrest warrant shows. The warrant lists the charges as 3rd-degree felonies. The FWC says arrest warrants have also been issued for three men from Titusville who will face similar charges: Luke David Michael Landry, 25; Robert Gage Martin, 28; and Wyatt Scott Lowe, 24.

Florida rules say alligators can only be hunted, captured or killed by people who have purchased a license, permit and tags from the state, a $272 package that allows the harvesting of two alligators annually. The use of firearms is prohibited, and hunting is only allowed during certain times in August through October. All slain alligators must be immediately tagged. The possession of any alligator hide not tagged is prohibited, according to FWC regulations.

The investigation began after the FWC received a complaint May 22 about Snapchat videos showing Landry “skinning out” an alligator in his garage, with two other dead alligators also visible.

FWC agents then searched Landry’s home and seized knives from his garage which later tested positive for alligator DNA.

When they later searched Landry’s phone, agents found video taken April 24 showing Landry, Lowe and Latreille killing at least one alligator, while videos taken April 28 and April 29 show Landry, Martin and Latreille killing five alligators on an airboat on the St. Johns River, the report shows.

There are also videos from later dates showing Landry and Martin skinning, processing and preparing alligator hides and skulls. Another video shows Landry’s son carrying a live alligator through the front yard of their residence. Landry later said he killed that alligator, according to the report.

Landry admitted to going out on Latreille’s airboat to catch and kill alligators, including one he said he shot with his Glock. He also admitted to skinning three or four of them in his garage with Martin. He said he “‘made dinner’ with some of the meat,” the report says.

In a second interview with FWC agents in July, Landry said some of the alligator hides and meat were placed in his freezer and an unidentified man picked them up. He also said some of the meat was “split up between the individuals involved” and a large quantity of the meat was eaten over a couple of days, the report said.

Brevard deputies had previously found a dump site with alligator carcasses. Landry said he and Lowe dumped alligator carcasses there, according to the report.

FWC agents spoke to Latreille on June 30. He said he and others killed alligators on multiple nights using his green airboat. He admitted to killing one with his father’s Glock, according to the report. The airboat was seized as evidence, the report shows.

When Latreille’s phone was searched, agents found videos recordings taken April 19 showing three other people on his airboat snatching alligators from the water.

The phone also contained videos taken April 29 showing Latreille, Landry, Martin and a woman on the airboat. That video shows off the dead animals on the deck and Latreille and Landry with their guns.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — Grand Canyon National Park will soon reopen portions of the North Rim to public access in the aftermath of a wildfire that destroyed a historic lodge and dozens of cabins, the National Park Service announced Thursday.

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Daytime access will begin Oct. 1 to locations including Point Imperial, the park’s highest overlook at the eastern end of the Grand Canyon, and the Cape Royal overlook, the Park Service said in a news release.

Access will extend through Nov. 30 or earlier with the first major snowfall — though much of the North Rim remains closed for the foreseeable future because of safe concerns and recovery efforts.

The Dragon Bravo Fire was sparked by lightning in early July. It burned for about a week before exploding into a fast moving conflagration that forced evacuations and consumed the Grand Canyon Lodge and cabins.

The Park Service cautioned that visitors to the reopened areas should be fully self-sufficient and bring all food, water, and supplies because initially there will be no power, running water, cell service or visitor services. Hazards remain, including dead standing trees and an increased potential for flash floods even outside the fire scar.

The National Park Service has defended its handling of the fire, saying a sudden and extreme shift in the wind far exceeded forecasts.

A bipartisan slate of Arizona’s elected officials questioned the handling of the fire, suggesting more could have been done early on. Gov. Katie Hobbs met with federal officials and said U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum committed to an independent review.

The fire eventually burned across more than 227 square miles.

An Inver Grove Heights man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Thursday for soliciting girls online to send him nude photos in exchange for money.

Samuel Eric Snell (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)

Samuel Eric Snell, 46, received his sentence in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty to one count of production of child pornography in connection with receiving sexually explicit images from his victims in 2022. Other charges dismissed as part of an April plea agreement included two counts of persuading or coercing a minor to engage in prostitution.

Snell was indicted in December after an FBI Investigation with help from the Inver Grove Heights and Woodbury police departments.

Snell was a user of the gaming platform Discord, where he repeatedly solicited and received more than 400 images of nude girls, according to federal prosecutors.

Snell posed as a man in his early 20s over several years to approach a “multitude of children as young as 12 years old,” prosecutors said. “Snell victimized at least 10 children using his lies, coercing and manipulating the victims to produce graphic child pornography. Snell also met with minors in person on multiple occasions.”

Prosecutors said Snell’s victims were from several states and he selected them “for their vulnerabilities” and “took advantage of their youth, naivete and difficult life circumstances to feed his own craven and twisted sexual desires.”

Snell’s sentence includes 10 years of supervised probation following incarceration.

In handing down the sentence, Judge John Tunheim said, “This is a long sentence, but it is justified” primarily because Snell’s victims would suffer traumatic effects of his crimes “probably for the rest of their lives.”

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