What a way to not stick the landing in the absolute slightest...
The cast is good but this movie really is a chore to get through. A story about the profiting off of stereotypes told through the plot of a tired cliche. The only redeeming quality is the meta aspect of this movie getting a Best Picture nomination because liberals love to make fun of themselves while thinking they’re one of the good ones.
I got goosebumps when they started talking about the music video. This is so f:asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol: up. What the hell. I never had a big opinion about him other than he is a talented artist and a very smart person, but this is insane. He needs help, but these girls need it more. And he’s just one of many. This is so sickening. I’m impressed beyond words how these women managed to stand up in the end and come forward.
That footage of the very good dog riding down the escalator is a special gift that the extra 30 minutes gives us viewers.
Fuck this episode for making me rewind to check her hand and then not showing both her hands.
This is the cinematic quintessence of the most literal interpretation of the word "Spectacular". If you have the capacity to follow subtle "show, don't tell" narrative beats and character motivations, and appreciate precisely timed plot developments and environmental storytelling organically affecting the progression of the plot, then you will appreciate a perfectly laid out narrative, with uncannily perfect balance of dramatic tone and thrilling presentation. It's simultaneously uncanny and bizzare, while also being groundedly human.
Everything gets filled in exactly as you need it to understand the narrative and writing developments. And god damn are the action scenes exquisitely designed and performed, and the sound design explosive and punctuated. It's musical—sometimes literally—but it all works flawlessly.
This is one of cinema's greats.
Notes: I actually never watched any of the previous films in their entirety. Also, I watched it in a kind of bastardized "bootleg Black and Chrome", since I could only get the full chroma version in 4K, full quality, and resorted to turning my saturation to zero. I know it's not the way it was intended, but I was sold on the monochrome from short clips, and it really does focus the presentation even more, and I understand why Miller considers it the definitive way to see it.