The Best Performance in One Battle After Another Is its Quietest

This post contains spoilers for One Battle After Another.

Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another is chock-full of amazing performances. There’s Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead as bumbling former revolutionary Bob Ferguson. Teyana Taylor gives a searing turn as current revolutionary and Bob’s former lover Perfidia Beverly Hills. And Sean Penn steals every scene as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Colonel Lockjaw, the law enforcer who kidnapped Bob and Beverly Hills’s daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti, in yet another incredible showing).

But the most compelling performance in the movie comes, ironically, from the most “normal” character. Ironic, because he’s played by Benicio del Toro.

Del Toro appears as Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, Willa’s karate teacher and a surprising ally in Bob’s battle against Lockjaw. The night that Lockjaw comes hunting him and Willa, Bob explodes into Sensei Sergio’s dojo, babbling about weapons and charging his phone. Sensei Sergio doesn’t even bat an eye. He calmly closes up the dojo and takes Bob to his house, where he’s running “a Latino Harriet Tubman thing.” Turns out, Sergio has an entire underground network within his community, a network that could get Bob to safety—if Bob could actually settle down and listen.

All of Sensei Sergio’s scenes are as loud and vibrant as everything else in the film. One Battle After Another is standout in Anderson’s already impressive career, thanks to the bravado filmmaking he demonstrates. Anderson’s cast match his tone with equally big, layered performances, all demanding attention without ever overtaking the movie itself.

And yet, del Toro stands out precisely because he doesn’t stand out. Nothing illustrates this better than his final moments in the movie, when he drives Bob to the rendezvous point with Willa. To keep Bob calm, Sergio and his passenger enjoy some beers, a plan that backfires when they pass a cop. To keep his fugitive pal from getting apprehended, Sergio forces Bob to jump out of the moving vehicle, letting him attract the police while Bob gets away. After that high-tension moment, we catch up with Bob later, where he’s affably answering the officer’s questions about his drinking.

For the most part, del Toro plays these scenes completely stone-faced, but not without warmth. He allows himself a slight smile when he admits to having “a few small beers” while driving, and he raises his voice ever so slightly when he needs Bob to pay attention. But, for the most part, del Toro makes Sergio feel like the only actual real person in a movie filled with heightened oddballs.

Which is, of course, surprising, because Benicio del Toro loves playing an oddball. Although his early career included turns in the James Bond movie License to Kill, del Toro broke out for most when he played the mush-mouthed Fenster in The Usual Suspects. Since then, del Toro has only added to his list of unique weirdos, including a stuttering mercenary in The Last Jedi and…whatever the heck he’s doing in Escape at Dannemora. Even his more acclaimed and seemingly quiet roles, as a Mexican police officer in Traffic or as an assassin in league with the United States in Sicario, brim with rage.

But that’s not what del Toro does in One Battle After Another. Instead, he lets the others scramble for the spotlight while he just sits back and plays his character. And, as a result, he actually ends up stealing the entire show.

One Battle After Another is now playing in theaters nationwide.