The only thing predictable about writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson is the unpredictable nature of the movies he chooses to make. The same man has made films featuring the porn industry, 19th-century oil drilling, a veiled story about Scientology, and a ‘70s-set rom-com. His new film, One Battle After Another, features another hard left turn, this time into the world of revolutionaries that just might be a very timely political critique.

The sprawling film begins in an incendiary manner, with Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), his romantic partner Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), and other members of a group called the French 75 raiding an immigration detention camp in the U.S., overwhelming the small military presence and freeing detainees. Perfidia has a charged encounter with Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) during the raid, setting in motion the main thrust of the film.

When Bob and Perfidia have a baby, Bob wants to pull back on their dangerous activity, while Perfidia wants to continue. The two go their separate ways, with Bob raising Willa (Chase Infiniti) away from his former comrades. But Col. Lockjaw’s feelings over his experiences with Perfidia and Bob remain strong after many years, and he uses his position of authority within the government and with another shadowy organization to try to track them down.

That bare-bones synopsis does little to describe just how intense, funny, and bonkers the nearly three-hour film actually is. Very loosely based on the 1990 Thomas Pynchon book Vineland and made well before the re-election of Donald Trump, the film nonetheless has certain sections that feel like a strong denunciation of the current administration’s immigration policies. And while those parts will undoubtedly set tongues wagging on both sides of the aisle, Anderson doesn’t get bogged down in politics.

As in every film he’s made, Anderson’s best skill is in creating memorable characters. Bob is a somewhat dim-witted guy whose addiction to pot injects a lot of comedy into the film. Perfidia is a strong-willed woman willing to do anything to get her way. Col. Lockjaw projects strength, but is actually a weak man who needs to have his ego massaged. The film is full of smaller characters who make big impressions no matter how much screen time they have.

The one constant throughout the film is the persistent score by Jonny Greenwood, who’s now done six PTA films. When the second half of the film turns into one long action scene, Greenwood’s music makes it even more intense. It culminates in a final sequence featuring one of the most memorable car chases in recent history, with Anderson’s filmmaking and Greenwood’s score combining to make something masterful.

In recent years, DiCaprio has seemed to delight in playing people who are off-kilter, and his performance here is as funny as it is compelling. Penn gives him a run for his money in that department, using a halting gait, weird mouth movements, and a general strange vibe to create an instant classic character. Taylor, Infiniti, Regina Hall, Benicio del Toro, Tony Goldwyn, and many more make the supporting cast as important as anything else in the film.

Anderson has tended to look to the past during his career, but with One Battle After Another — which takes place over the course of 16 years or so — he speaks more to current times than anything he’s ever made. While it has themes of political dissent and government overreach, it’s also about the strength of family units and people standing up for what’s right. All of that and more makes it one of the best movies of the year.

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One Battle After Another opens in theaters on September 26.