Paul Thomas Anderson's new action comedy is basically "Big Lebowski" fan fiction with Leonardo DiCaprio capably taking on Jeff Bridges' role of The Dude.
It started to speed up after about 20 minutes and then when it jumped 16 years to today it became fun.
The disturbing part is how goddamn stupid the plot is while pretending to be serious.
Don't get me wrong, the movie is intentionally funny at times but you're supposed to take the plot seriously and in a world of know-nothing perpetually-online dullards I suspect many people WILL take it seriously.
And that's not a good thing.
Both right wing and left wing know-nothings will take seriously the movie's presumed righteousness of perpetual Mexican Immigration, of serious "resistance" organizations, and of secret American "purity party" organizations with unchecked power who's philosophy is some cartoon version of the Nazi Party.
The good news is that while Steve oky mentioned the first point, we can all await the delightful humorous exchanges in the hallowed Halls of Congress as the second point will probably be brought up in Congress by Ka$h Patel or some other Trump toadie as evidence of Antifa (or "Anonymous") being serious organizations, only to be countered by AOC about the Christmas Adventures. (Not really AOC, I know there are dumber folk on her side of the aisle but I don't care enough to know their names.)
Anyway, is it *worth* watching? No, but Steve's point that it doesn't intend to be a serious movie will allow you to enjoy the heartwarming/suspense/action scenes as well as the few funny moments.
It may also inspire you - depending on your politics - to actually go and set up your own underground resistance or wealthy racial purity movements, but as long as Zombie Trump continues to (somehow!) rule the Earth neither will go too well for you so I'd redommend waiting him out before you start.
P.S. Steve, you've got clout! Can you Please get on the horn to the Coen Brothers and tell them to make another movie? They've *NEVER* missed! Whatever you think their worst movie was, it's better than ANYTHING the other Anderson ever made. They are literally the best at what they do.
FYI, a French 75 was a common, but now outmoded, artillery piece from the early 19th century; similar, but smaller than the American 90 millimeter split trail howitzer.
The French 75 was a sexual position-cum-act that was popular, in theory anyway, in literary circles back in the 1980s. You need two women--ideally one of them is Bulgarian--a 4x8 sheet of Baltic birch plywood, and a jar of beef tallow...
Early 20th...1897, to split hairs. A really good gun, better than its German counterpart, but turned out to be slightly out of date even by WWI because it wasn't good at indirect fire, which turned out to be what was needed for trench warfare.
Steve's review sure doesn't make it sound like a fun action comedy at all...based on the reactions of the critics cited in the piece, it appears it's galvanizing to leftists in their persistent efforts to justify violence against politics they don't like, which is implicitly endorsing violence against supporters of politics in opposition to the left. Like me.
Pre-election I was pretty negative about what the future might look like, even with a Trump win. His first few months in office were fun and pushed some of the negativity away, but now I'm back to recognizing things are going to be ugly.
The French 75 was a quick firing artillery piece developed at the end of the 19th century and used heavily in the Great War. Sounds like the limousine terrorists would be more familiar with the cocktail though.
Yeah, it is pretty different from the novel, although I had forgotten most of it. There's a former hippie commune,/free state but the wife/mother who falls for the federal agent is in a radical film collective. I don't think she's a gun-toting terrorist and there's nothing about freeing immigrants.
Josh Brolin probably would have been better than Penn.
The reviews are confirming something that polling has been seeing for some time: support for political violence is highly correlated with number of years of education. Steve's South Bay vs. Valley take on the LA movie scene is of more interest. When I had a series of deals in LA in the late 80s, I began to notice how LA scenery forms the backdrop to my whole TV experience growing up. Almost like you have a second hometown unconsciously there. My personal favorite film featuring LA scenes (both literal and cultural) is Soderberg's "The Limey." That's the whole enchilada.
I grew up in the time and place of John Hughs teenager movies and now live in LA. There is a weird emotional experience that doesn't have a name (as far as I know) but feels like a variation on the theme of nostalgia--when the movie places exist for you in real life. I enjoy it.
Ever see "Bullitt"? One of the early scenes, where Steve McQueen meets the Robert Vaughan character, takes place at a Pacific Heights mansion, a house where I attended my first college party in 1975.
A great movie but it isn't true to the city. I was annoyed when during the car chase the uphill part was in Pacific Heights while the downhill was in Bernal Heights which are not next to each other. The Dirty Harry movies reflected the actual layout of SF.
I grew up in the town where they filmed "Risky Business". Same deal and same reaction to the impossible geography of the Porche/Guido the killer Pimp chase scene.
Director Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways) says, "I dunno why people say L.A. has no history. Whenever I'm driving around, I'm saying, 'Hey, look, there's the outdoor staircase where Laurel & Hardy had to move the piano!"
Aren't most historical places either evidence of the main industry of the place, stuff people bought with the riches they gained from the main industry of the place, and where famous people lived or drank or were buried?
Surprised you didn't touch upon the white-supremacist-satanist secret society with their slogan "hail saint nick." And you said exactly what I was thinking: why would black radicals care about freeing illegal migrants?
On "Bojack Horseman" Princess Caroline's awful agent boss rejects reading all the amazing scripts she's found based on the awfulness of their titles. There will not be blood! I would have accepted "there will" or "be blood" and then he throws the script into a ceiling fan where it shreds to confetti.
A film critic wanting violent resistance is so on the nose. I don't get these pansies who crave a more violent world. Does it never occur to them it could get out of control and come to their door? It's like all those keyboard guys who have never trained but are certain they would perform admirably in a fight. They just wish someone would give them an excuse. No way the result would be cracking their skull on the pavement and permanent brain damage. Just a heroes welcome from the other malcontents.
Seriously, why glamorize violent resistance to enforcement of immigration law with never a peep about writing your congressman demanding a change to immigration law. Obviously the fantasy of violence and martyrdom is the point.
A few years ago they changed the law so that you can only deduct $10k of state and local taxes. It hit a lot of average people in CA. No one ever thought of violent resistance to it.
I wouldn't expect people to riot over SALT deductions. It's not really an existential issue. But then, I wouldn't expect riots all over the globe because some petty criminal drug user had a cardiac event during an arrest.
Being made an ethnic minority in your own homeland really is an existential issue. If an Israeli prime minister proposed open borders with Palestine or whoever else I would expect them them to be assassinated or a military coup.
The Right is more bourgeois, older, and cerebral, so they are really not very good at street violence. The Proud Boys were, and their numbers were growing but they won a fist fight with some antifa punks and the Biden administration went after them like they were al Qaida. So I think that's an important factor in political violence. If when the cops show up they start cracking YOUR heads, then you're not going to be as enthusiastic. For whatever reason, Western governments genuinely seem more repulsed by right wing violence than left wing violence, probably for #literallyHitler reasons.
People of a certain temperament can view anything as an existential threat. This is the main shared characteristic of the current left. If you ask them why it was okay to kill Charlie Kirk for example, it's because he was literally a threat to the lives of trans people. How? If you have to ask, you might be sane.
The recent Long Walk from the story by Stephen King is also pro-revolution. After debating love and positivity vs. assassination, the movie chooses assassination. Eddington which opened in the summer also has an evil, anti-mask sheriff shot by antifa-like terrorists.
It’s shocking to even be having to talk about it yet here we are.
The left’s propensity for violence as the solution has been played out century after century.
All the AI movies seem slanted on ‘Look out! They’re Skynet/gonna getcha.’ themes, this scarevertainment (as I call it) is the softening, the readying, the groundwork.
The image of the pregnant black antagonist wielding a rifle was as absurd as Major "King" Kong riding the bomb in Dr Strangelove. They're was nothing revolutionary about it. And what the fuck, what kind of Marxist revolutionary doesn't abort her parasite? No cosplayer would ever consent to such a reduced role as "baby haver", much less a true believer.
Sort of reminds me of the "Cleopatra Schwartz" character in Kentucky Fried Movie. But your other point is also correct - the left really is pretty anti natal at this point and the type of black lady that wants to have babies is definitely not the political activist sort.
I didn’t know until a few moments ago when looking her up that Rudolph is the daughter of a Jewish guy and black mother, so daughter of Cleopatra Schwartz.
Maya Rudoph's mother, the amazing singer, died of cancer when she was 6. A bunch of people in show biz, like Blythe Danner and Steven Spielberg, looked out for the little girl who'd lost her mom.
Lovin' You was an important plot point in an early episode of South Park, but Matt and Trey did not choose this song as a tribute to Maya as when this episode came out she was not yet famous
Maya grew up with Gwyneth Paltrow as her close friend and was in an alternative rock band at UC Santa Cruz, so she was a valuable utility infielder for SNL because she could play black or white, whatever the sketch required.
Gwyneth Paltrow anecdote: one morning a young woman named Lara Lundstrom Clarke was walking across Seventh Avenue in Manhattan on her way to the subway when she nearly got run over by Paltrow driving her silver Mercedes. Paltrow motioned for Clarke to go first, Clarke did the same to Paltrow, while the whole standoff lasted no longer than 30 seconds it caused Clarke to miss her subway train - the door closed literally in her face.
The upshot was that Clarke was a few minutes late to work … which may have saved her life. This incident occurred on September 11, 2001 and Clarke worked at the World Trade Center.
This movie has the worst plot out of any that I've ever seen, but was really funny after the opening
Yeah, the opening was so slow I almost quit it.
It started to speed up after about 20 minutes and then when it jumped 16 years to today it became fun.
The disturbing part is how goddamn stupid the plot is while pretending to be serious.
Don't get me wrong, the movie is intentionally funny at times but you're supposed to take the plot seriously and in a world of know-nothing perpetually-online dullards I suspect many people WILL take it seriously.
And that's not a good thing.
Both right wing and left wing know-nothings will take seriously the movie's presumed righteousness of perpetual Mexican Immigration, of serious "resistance" organizations, and of secret American "purity party" organizations with unchecked power who's philosophy is some cartoon version of the Nazi Party.
The good news is that while Steve oky mentioned the first point, we can all await the delightful humorous exchanges in the hallowed Halls of Congress as the second point will probably be brought up in Congress by Ka$h Patel or some other Trump toadie as evidence of Antifa (or "Anonymous") being serious organizations, only to be countered by AOC about the Christmas Adventures. (Not really AOC, I know there are dumber folk on her side of the aisle but I don't care enough to know their names.)
Anyway, is it *worth* watching? No, but Steve's point that it doesn't intend to be a serious movie will allow you to enjoy the heartwarming/suspense/action scenes as well as the few funny moments.
It may also inspire you - depending on your politics - to actually go and set up your own underground resistance or wealthy racial purity movements, but as long as Zombie Trump continues to (somehow!) rule the Earth neither will go too well for you so I'd redommend waiting him out before you start.
P.S. Steve, you've got clout! Can you Please get on the horn to the Coen Brothers and tell them to make another movie? They've *NEVER* missed! Whatever you think their worst movie was, it's better than ANYTHING the other Anderson ever made. They are literally the best at what they do.
Much more negative than I was expecting. I do agree that PTA seemed more interested in the movie aspect than the political philosophy.
I’m sticking with my instincts and will pass on this one. Your heart didn’t seem to be in this review either.
The movie is a full-throated cry for left-wing political violence.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
FYI, a French 75 was a common, but now outmoded, artillery piece from the early 19th century; similar, but smaller than the American 90 millimeter split trail howitzer.
The French 75 was a sexual position-cum-act that was popular, in theory anyway, in literary circles back in the 1980s. You need two women--ideally one of them is Bulgarian--a 4x8 sheet of Baltic birch plywood, and a jar of beef tallow...
Early 20th...1897, to split hairs. A really good gun, better than its German counterpart, but turned out to be slightly out of date even by WWI because it wasn't good at indirect fire, which turned out to be what was needed for trench warfare.
Steve's review sure doesn't make it sound like a fun action comedy at all...based on the reactions of the critics cited in the piece, it appears it's galvanizing to leftists in their persistent efforts to justify violence against politics they don't like, which is implicitly endorsing violence against supporters of politics in opposition to the left. Like me.
Pre-election I was pretty negative about what the future might look like, even with a Trump win. His first few months in office were fun and pushed some of the negativity away, but now I'm back to recognizing things are going to be ugly.
The French 75 was a quick firing artillery piece developed at the end of the 19th century and used heavily in the Great War. Sounds like the limousine terrorists would be more familiar with the cocktail though.
Based on the Pynchon novel, Vineland. Anderson aso directed Inherent Vice, another Pynchon novel.
The credits say "inspired" by Pynchon's Vineland.
Yeah, it is pretty different from the novel, although I had forgotten most of it. There's a former hippie commune,/free state but the wife/mother who falls for the federal agent is in a radical film collective. I don't think she's a gun-toting terrorist and there's nothing about freeing immigrants.
Josh Brolin probably would have been better than Penn.
The reviews are confirming something that polling has been seeing for some time: support for political violence is highly correlated with number of years of education. Steve's South Bay vs. Valley take on the LA movie scene is of more interest. When I had a series of deals in LA in the late 80s, I began to notice how LA scenery forms the backdrop to my whole TV experience growing up. Almost like you have a second hometown unconsciously there. My personal favorite film featuring LA scenes (both literal and cultural) is Soderberg's "The Limey." That's the whole enchilada.
I grew up in the time and place of John Hughs teenager movies and now live in LA. There is a weird emotional experience that doesn't have a name (as far as I know) but feels like a variation on the theme of nostalgia--when the movie places exist for you in real life. I enjoy it.
Ever see "Bullitt"? One of the early scenes, where Steve McQueen meets the Robert Vaughan character, takes place at a Pacific Heights mansion, a house where I attended my first college party in 1975.
Of course, multiple times!
A great movie but it isn't true to the city. I was annoyed when during the car chase the uphill part was in Pacific Heights while the downhill was in Bernal Heights which are not next to each other. The Dirty Harry movies reflected the actual layout of SF.
I grew up in the town where they filmed "Risky Business". Same deal and same reaction to the impossible geography of the Porche/Guido the killer Pimp chase scene.
Welsh hiraeth may come close to what you describe.
Deja-grew, maybe? Somewhere that grew on you despite never having been there. I’m just thinking out loud.
I like Deja-grew but Hiraeth sounds more intense and sad
It’s a beautiful word that sums up the longing/loss/wish to be there.
Director Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways) says, "I dunno why people say L.A. has no history. Whenever I'm driving around, I'm saying, 'Hey, look, there's the outdoor staircase where Laurel & Hardy had to move the piano!"
Aren't most historical places either evidence of the main industry of the place, stuff people bought with the riches they gained from the main industry of the place, and where famous people lived or drank or were buried?
Steve Martin’s LA Story was a bit rubbish (spasmodically good bits throughout, the coffee buying/Cafe Idiot) but the backdrop is gorgeous.
Surprised you didn't touch upon the white-supremacist-satanist secret society with their slogan "hail saint nick." And you said exactly what I was thinking: why would black radicals care about freeing illegal migrants?
On "Bojack Horseman" Princess Caroline's awful agent boss rejects reading all the amazing scripts she's found based on the awfulness of their titles. There will not be blood! I would have accepted "there will" or "be blood" and then he throws the script into a ceiling fan where it shreds to confetti.
A film critic wanting violent resistance is so on the nose. I don't get these pansies who crave a more violent world. Does it never occur to them it could get out of control and come to their door? It's like all those keyboard guys who have never trained but are certain they would perform admirably in a fight. They just wish someone would give them an excuse. No way the result would be cracking their skull on the pavement and permanent brain damage. Just a heroes welcome from the other malcontents.
Seriously, why glamorize violent resistance to enforcement of immigration law with never a peep about writing your congressman demanding a change to immigration law. Obviously the fantasy of violence and martyrdom is the point.
A few years ago they changed the law so that you can only deduct $10k of state and local taxes. It hit a lot of average people in CA. No one ever thought of violent resistance to it.
I wouldn't expect people to riot over SALT deductions. It's not really an existential issue. But then, I wouldn't expect riots all over the globe because some petty criminal drug user had a cardiac event during an arrest.
Being made an ethnic minority in your own homeland really is an existential issue. If an Israeli prime minister proposed open borders with Palestine or whoever else I would expect them them to be assassinated or a military coup.
The Right is more bourgeois, older, and cerebral, so they are really not very good at street violence. The Proud Boys were, and their numbers were growing but they won a fist fight with some antifa punks and the Biden administration went after them like they were al Qaida. So I think that's an important factor in political violence. If when the cops show up they start cracking YOUR heads, then you're not going to be as enthusiastic. For whatever reason, Western governments genuinely seem more repulsed by right wing violence than left wing violence, probably for #literallyHitler reasons.
People of a certain temperament can view anything as an existential threat. This is the main shared characteristic of the current left. If you ask them why it was okay to kill Charlie Kirk for example, it's because he was literally a threat to the lives of trans people. How? If you have to ask, you might be sane.
What's NOT justified against fascists?
Stickers on guitars?
The movie is quite funny (it ain't no The Big Lebowski) but I watched it as if I were a lefty. It's a call to arms.
The recent Long Walk from the story by Stephen King is also pro-revolution. After debating love and positivity vs. assassination, the movie chooses assassination. Eddington which opened in the summer also has an evil, anti-mask sheriff shot by antifa-like terrorists.
It’s shocking to even be having to talk about it yet here we are.
The left’s propensity for violence as the solution has been played out century after century.
All the AI movies seem slanted on ‘Look out! They’re Skynet/gonna getcha.’ themes, this scarevertainment (as I call it) is the softening, the readying, the groundwork.
We have to stop sleepwalking, friend.
So I should go see it after all.
Thank you for the review so I'll never accidentally watch it.
The image of the pregnant black antagonist wielding a rifle was as absurd as Major "King" Kong riding the bomb in Dr Strangelove. They're was nothing revolutionary about it. And what the fuck, what kind of Marxist revolutionary doesn't abort her parasite? No cosplayer would ever consent to such a reduced role as "baby haver", much less a true believer.
Sort of reminds me of the "Cleopatra Schwartz" character in Kentucky Fried Movie. But your other point is also correct - the left really is pretty anti natal at this point and the type of black lady that wants to have babies is definitely not the political activist sort.
Right. And the half-black Maya Rudolph has four kids with PTA, which probably says something about where his head is at.
I didn’t know until a few moments ago when looking her up that Rudolph is the daughter of a Jewish guy and black mother, so daughter of Cleopatra Schwartz.
Yeah, her mother is Minnie Riperton. Lovin’ You.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE0pwJ5PMDg
Maya Rudoph's mother, the amazing singer, died of cancer when she was 6. A bunch of people in show biz, like Blythe Danner and Steven Spielberg, looked out for the little girl who'd lost her mom.
Things worked out well.
She was one of the funnier members of SNL and was hilarious in Idiocracy.
Lovin' You was an important plot point in an early episode of South Park, but Matt and Trey did not choose this song as a tribute to Maya as when this episode came out she was not yet famous
> Rudolph is the daughter of a Jewish guy and black mother
This is the same parentage as Lenny Kravitz, whose mother not only had married a white guy IRL but also married a white guy on The Jeffersons
I put Maya Rudolph in the same category as Meghan Markle, racially mixed but close enough to white that they’re not truly minority.
Maya grew up with Gwyneth Paltrow as her close friend and was in an alternative rock band at UC Santa Cruz, so she was a valuable utility infielder for SNL because she could play black or white, whatever the sketch required.
Gwyneth Paltrow anecdote: one morning a young woman named Lara Lundstrom Clarke was walking across Seventh Avenue in Manhattan on her way to the subway when she nearly got run over by Paltrow driving her silver Mercedes. Paltrow motioned for Clarke to go first, Clarke did the same to Paltrow, while the whole standoff lasted no longer than 30 seconds it caused Clarke to miss her subway train - the door closed literally in her face.
The upshot was that Clarke was a few minutes late to work … which may have saved her life. This incident occurred on September 11, 2001 and Clarke worked at the World Trade Center.