When I went into Paul Thomas Anderson’s highly anticipated political epic One Battle After Another this past weekend, I figured it would be somewhat along the lines of his past film, the absurdist and irreverent Inherent Vice (2014). The former is based on a 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon and the latter is roughly inspired by another novel by the author, Vineland (1990).

But what I got felt more like a modernized interpretation of Victor Hugo’s 1831 classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, to the point where I’m a little surprised more people aren’t also seeing the parallels.

In the late 2000s, a revolutionary known as Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) leads a radical, extremist group called The French 75. In between secretly releasing immigrants from detention centers and planting bombs in various locations, Perfidia has a romantic relationship with her fellow F75 member Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a short, secret fling with Col. Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), who is a white supremacist obsessed with Perfidia.

When things unexpectedly go haywire during a bank bust, Perfidia instantly goes MIA and Pat is left to raise their newborn daughter, Charlene. 16 years later, Charlene, now Willa Ferguson (Chase Infiniti), is kidnapped by Lockjaw’s team, with a lone, junkie ridden Pat, now Bob, alone to rescue her.

Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Tony Goldwyn, Alana Haim and Kevin Tighe make up some of the supporting cast of One Battle After Another, and the movie features a score by frequent Anderson collaborator Jonny Greenwood. Anderson’s new movie is currently receiving overwhelming praise, and while it hasn’t jumped to the top of my favorite films of 2025 so far, I’m a longtime PTA fan and agree with many of the positive reactions.

The writer-director surrounds himself with performers and artists as talented as he is and it almost always pays off, with One Battle the most recent example of such. Infiniti is a revelation opposite all the veteran actors, and I was a bit bummed to see Haim exit after the first act since she was the highlight of Anderson’s previous picture, Licorice Pizza (2021).

But really, I’m most taken by how Hugo-esque the general story of One Battle After Another is. Lockjaw is a clear modern equivalent of Claude Frollo, both Perfidia and Willa are an amalgamation of Esmeralda, and Bob/Pat is our burnout-esque Quasimodo. I wasn’t expecting one of my favorite filmmakers’ movies to remind me of a famous French book, but if there was ever a time for either’s exposure, it’s probably now.

A dopey “on-the-spectrum” crook on the lam plot and two movie stars who know how to work a closeup headline the charms of the delightful and just dark enough “Roofman,” a caper comedy where the real caper is getting away with it.

It pairs up the graceful, athletic and best-in-comedic roles Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst, an earthy actress who easily summons up wary, wounded and beguiling with just a dimpled smile and a twinkle in her eye.

Throw in the deadpan delight Lakeith Stanfield, June Temple who brings more to trashy-funny than any of her peers, Peter Dinklage at his most irritable and veteran Oz-villain Ben Mendelsohn — cast against type as a good-hearted pastor — and you’ve got yourself a winner.

Still not sold? Dinklage and Mendelsohn SING. Bet you didn’t hear that coming.

“Roofman” is a period piece comedy from the golden age of Big Box Stores, from Blockbuster Video to Best Buy and Toys R Us.

In the early 2000s, one physically fit and clever robber terrorized McDonald’s stores all over because he’d found the billion dollar franchise’s security Achilles Heel. Busting in through the roof after hours, and then making the manager empty the safe before opening in the AM was easy money. He did it 45 times.

Jeffrey Manchester was a former member of the famed 82nd Airborne parachuting infantry. He knew how to get into places and sometimes even pull himself out of them. One thing the movie leaves out is that he’d worked at a McDonalds. He knew corporate protocols.

“Roofman” gives our anti-hero a best friend and former comrade in arms (Stanfield at his most sarcastic) who tells him “observation” of “details” is his “superpower.”

The “Roofman” desperately wants to provide the finer working class things to his in-the-process-of-moving-on-ex (Melonie Diaz) and their three kids. But “superpower” or not, sooner or later — 45 robberies in — even physically fit commandos get caught.

This movie by writer and director of “The Place Beyond the Pines” and “The Light Between Oceans” (Derek Cianfrance) is about what happens after Manchester gets caught, ingeniously escapes from prison and has to hole up for months in the crawl space and after hours floor space of a Charlotte, N.C. Toys R Us.

Our lovable, pushover criminal — he gives his jacket to a McDonald’s manager (Tony Revolori) when he locks him in the store freezer — finds he can’t go home again, his wife’s moved on and the cops are watching all his old haunts like a hawk. So on the advice of that old Airborne comrade Steve (Stanfield), he shelters in place.

His dream? Fleeing the country to “somewhere with beach and NO extradition treaty,” Venezuela or Brazil.

But hiding out in that big box toy store, bathing in the bathroom, sleeping behind a false wall, clothing himself with colorful not-quite-kiddywear and dining on peanut M & Ms’, he immerses himself in the dynamics of the business and the friction within this culture.

The boss (Dinklage) is a brusque bully, not interested in the “personal life” issues divorced mom Leigh (Dunst) trots out whenever she needs time off. Our store squatter surreptitiously intervenes on her behalf. When Leigh asks that same boss for donations to her church’s toy drive, she’s rebuffed. The handsome ex-con can fix that, too.

That’s how they meet and how the “detail” oriented criminal falls in love and his best laid plans “gang aft agley,” as the poet said.

That church introduction is an unalloyed delight, almost wholly out of character for this filmmaker but not these two stars. Tatum’s Jeffrey, going by “John,” goes all tongue-tied amidst the widowed and divorced man-eaters of this integrated, musical and joyous church. Dunst does the worn down divorcee charmed to blushing by the hunk who pays her extra attention.

And seeing Mendelsohn (“Rogue One,” “The Dark Knight Rises”) paired with Uzo Aduba (“Orange is the New Black,” “Tallulah”) as the bubbly married couple who minister to this flock is enough to restore your faith in casting directors, if not Southern Fried Christianity. She plays matchmaker and when he breaks into song I just about fell out of my seat. They’re a hoot.

Juno Temple (“Ted Lasso”) scores points as shifty ex-Airborne Steve’s partner in crime.

I don’t know what it is about Charlotte, North Carolina and goofball crime stories — many of them true — that have big screen appeal. Remember Zach Galifiankis and “Masterminds?” Steven Soderbergh’s NASCAR yahoo caper comedy “Logan Lucky?” Something about the city, or maybe it’s haughty self-regard (I used to live there) makes dumb criminal tales from there irresistible.

Cianfrance betters those two earlier efforts by leaning into the “Cool Hand Luke” of the caper, the ways Manchester gets away with this and that, avoiding capture.

“When they stop watching you,” he says of “working” the guards and those he deals with in prison, “you can start watching them.”

That “keep running” and you’ll outdistance any police dragnet theory is dismissed by Manchester, who narrates his story and insists “The trick is to stop — find a place no one will look.”

No wonder the cops refer to this guy as some sort of savant, “maybe a genius,” and kind of “an idiot.”

The narrative drags on a bit as the story makes its turn towards the dark finale. But with its Christmas shopping climax, we may have ourselves the first delight of the holiday cinema season right here in mid-October. And if you miss Tatum and Dunst’s chemistry in cinemas, don’t fret. They’ll be “out” for good behavior and out on video by Veterans’ Day.

Rating: R, some violence, nudity, sex, profanity

Cast: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Lakeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Melonie Diaz, Uzo Aduba, Ben Mendelsohn, Tony Revolori and Peter Dinklage

Credits: Directed by Derek Cianfrance, scripted by Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn. A Miramax/Paramount release.

Running time: 2:06

After last week’s worrisome Season 51 debut with Bad Bunny, it seemed like a 50/50 chance on whether the second episode of the season with guest host and beloved “Saturday Night Live” alum Amy Poehler would turn things around. Would the writing feel sharper and less obvious in the hands of a veteran sketch performer?

Poehler, host of the popular podcast “Good Hang,” made all the right moves and may have even overextended herself, appearing in almost every sketch, including the cold open and “Weekend Update” for a joke-off. You could (and should) give Poehler lots of credit for her boundless energy, which lifted weaker sketches, like one about a menopausal mom who goes goth and one where Poehler and Bowen Yang are the composers of the “Severance” opening theme (the joke is that their theme songs always start with a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”-like rap as their first draft).

But Poehler also benefited from much stronger sketch premises compared to last week’s, from a beautifully performed sketch about a TV psychic, Miss Lycus, who rushes everyone because she has a hard out at 7 p.m., to a spot-on parody of Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives,” with a guest appearance from Poehler’s “Parks & Recreation” co-star Aubrey Plaza. The writing afforded Poehler with big, broad characters, like a CEO giving birth during a meeting with her employees, the matriarch in a family of jerks called The Rudemans and an elderly lawyer who interrupts a TV commercial to one-up other lawyers on the basis of having the most experience.

Poehler also got a little help from some long-time friends and alums, including Tina Fey, appearing as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the cold open, and Seth Meyers, returning to the “Weekend Update” desk with Poehler and Fey.

Maybe podcasting has allowed Poehler to store some stage energy to burst-fire on “SNL”; she put in a great performance for a solid episode overall.

Musical guests Role Model performed “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out,” with a surprise appearance from Charli XCX as Sally, and “Some Protector.” Before the close, “SNL” memorialized Diane Keaton, whose death was announced Saturday, in a title card. She never hosted “Saturday Night Live” but was portrayed on the show multiple times.

The cold open this week parodied Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi’s contentious meeting this week with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Poehler appeared as Bondi and responded to questions from Democratic senators with a series of withering insults she described as “roast-style burns I have on this piece of paper.” After mocking them and avoiding questions about the indictment of James Comey and the Jeffrey Epstein files, Bondi makes way for Noem (Fey, returning to “SNL” cold open politics), who joins in the mocking, telling one senator, “That makes me laugh more than the end of ‘Old Yeller.’ ” After being reminded that a dog gets shot at the end of that film, she responds, “Dogs don’t just get shot. Heroes shoot them.” While the first half of the cold open was shaky, with insults that weren’t landing despite Poehler’s forceful delivery, Fey’s appearance livened things up and ended strong with a call-and-response between Fey and Poehler that made fun of ICE recruitment ads. “Do you take supplements that you bought at a gas station?” Noem asked, “buckle up and slap on some Oakleys, big boy, and welcome to ICE!”

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Poehler’s monologue was sweet, wistful and self-deprecating. “I found my first love here,” she said, “being famous.” She went on to describe her life now, saying, “I am a podcaster. If that’s not a recession indicator, I don’t know what is.” She also pointed out that this episode marked the actual 50-year anniversary of “SNL,” which first aired on Oct. 11, 1975. “Just like (host) George Carlin, I am extremely high,” she said. Poehler poked fun at AI actors who’ve been in the news and might want to take her job. “You’ll never be able to write a joke, and I am willing to do full frontal, but nobody’s asked me, OK?” she concluded defiantly.

Best sketch of the night: The thigh squeezes are bigger in Texas, too

It may be a little late to the party (the show came out in July), but this mock trailer for Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives” hits all the right notes with Poehler as frequently topless Margo and Chloe Fineman as Sophie (Malin Ackerman and Brittany Snow, respectively, on the series). The trailer promises that as the women get hornier and drunker, thighs will be squeezed and guns will be drawn. Aubrey Plaza appears as a new wife from California and soon she’s being caressed by all the other women in the cast as they make mimosas. A few great lines from this one: “It’s like ‘Call Me By Your Name’ for women who shop at Bass Pro Shop,” and “Don’t watch it on a plane.”

Also good: Don’t settle for just 100 years of legal experience

Pohler’s character in the Psychic Talk Show sketch was very funny, but the sketch about one-upping lawyers edges it out only because it goes to some extremely weird and dumb places for much longer than needed and incorporates what looked like the entire cast. What starts as a basic personal injury lawyer commercial explaining how the firm has 50 years of combined experience ends up including long-living turtles, Sarah Sherman as a vampire attorney named Dracu-Law, and an ageless tree, Yggdrasil (Yang), who once represented Zeus.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Someday, that 13-pound baby is going to watch this

On a packed “Weekend Update,” Sherman debuted over-caffeinated Long Islander Rhonda LaCenzo, who rails against New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. And Marcello Hernández and Jane Wickline returned as a seemingly mismatched couple discussing their Halloween plans. But it was an epic joke-off featuring past “Update” anchors Poehler, Fey and Meyers facing off against current ones Colin Jost and Michael Che to make fun of the birth of a nearly 13-pound baby born in Tennessee. “It was so big that he slapped the doctor on his ass!” Poehler began. Some of the better jokes: “The woman zipped around the room like a deflated balloon.” “Did she give birth or did it drive out?” “The baby’s name is AHHHHH!” Poehler rounded out the contest by declaring, “The record was for loosest vagina and the previous held… by me!”