Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro’s capture, coming exactly 36 years after the similar seizure of Panama’s Manuel Noriega, has taken U.S. foreign policy back to the future, just as Hollywood grapples with questions of American imperialism in Oscar favorites ranging from Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another to Ryan Coogler’s Sinners to Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme. Life began imitating art when President Donald Trump bluntly declared “we’re going to be running Venezuela” about the U.S.’ role going forward in the country’s governance, recalling the Marty Supreme closing credits needle drop: “Everybody wants to rule the world,” by ’80s greats Tears for Fears.
But Anderson’s One Battle, an adaptation of the always politically minded novelist Thomas Pynchon, has a certain extra resonance in 2026 because of the surprise strike from the White House on Venezuela and because of its casting of an unlikely player in 21st century foreign policy: Sean Penn. The onetime Gen X badboy was famously, briefly married to pop icon Madonna before reinventing himself as one of the greatest actors of his generation, notching an Oscar for 2003’s Mystic River. Shortly after his crowning as Hollywood royalty, Penn emerged as a notable voice endorsing the Chavismo that ultimately led to Maduro and a near 30-year economic unraveling in Venezuela.
