On a quiet, almost dreamy Sunday morning in Kahului, Maui, my wife and I walked into the Regal theater in the downtown mall to watch One Battle After Another. We would not have been interested in this movie just from watching the trailers. It looks like a bang bang shoot me up action thriller that we’re usually not interested in. But we had a trusted recommendation that it was one of the best movies in a long time, so we decided to give it a chance.

The Regal in Maui has a weird setup with huge screens and, in this case, only less than 30 seats in three rows. The back row was taken, so we sat in the middle row, where we literally had to recline the seats all the way back and look up at a 45 degree angle to the huge screen looming over us. Not a comfortable way to watch a movie, and I would not want to go back to that theater.

The weird surroundings and the strange seating position were both jarring, so when the movie started with its first act, its extremely fast-paced opening, the rapid-fire succession of many scenes, the relentless and very loud music, it just helped transport both of us into another world, not one we particularly liked. I had my doubts at that time.

But minute after minute built the story, and once the second act came along, the deep suspense and the gripping story just took over.

America is more divided now than it ever was in my lifetime in this country. Today our ideological differences are huge, we have camps where immigrants are detained without due process, we are watching a militarization of our cities, and outright physical aggression is commonplace, at least if we can trust what our media feeds us. This is the backdrop for this story, and I have to refrain from taking sides and making any political statements or voice opinions. The timing of this film is impeccable, and it will make millions of us think about what we’re doing to our country.

The story starts when we are introduced to the French 75, a fictional radical left-wing terrorist group that frees detained immigrants with force, blows up military installations, robs banks, all as part of a left-wing ideology.  They wage One Battle After Another in their war against the government. The first act of the movie tells a story of radical politics, violence, repression and generational legacy.

There is Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), which is not his real name, who is a bomb expert and there is Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), a black firebrand who clearly gets off sexually on physical violence and a mission of revolution. The two are a couple within the larger terrorist group, doing battle, until their child is born and they have to take very different turns in life. This is where the bang bang first act stops and the second act begins, following the life of Bob raising his daughter as a single parent in a makeshift, quiet life.

One of their military nemesis, Col. Steven Lockjaw, decides to come after them 16 years later with the full force of the US government to settle old scores. He hunts them down, and in a flurry of escapes, father and daughter are separated. Lockjaw is a ferocious soldier with a twisted, sick psyche who will stop at nothing to get his way.

Here is the strange part: Lockjaw is played masterfully by Sean Penn. For the first half of the movie I didn’t even realize it was Sean Penn. I had to look it up online during the movie and then I saw this character in a whole different light. Both DiCaprio and Penn are playing their roles like absolute professionals. They carry the movie. The sound track, if you call it that, is intense. Heavy piano scores speed the action and somehow my heartrate went along with it.

At the end of the 2 hour and 42 minute movie I sat there spent. It was difficult to watch. It made me think. Going back out into the afternoon Maui sunshine seemed surreal. It has made me think all day.

I am still thinking.