greatandimproving

Bob Ferguson (Leo DiCaprio) is a leftist revolutionary, albeit from another time. He remains dedicated to the cause but certain modern issues veer a tad outside his comfort zone (e.g., pronouns). Bob's lover Perfidia Beverly (Teyana Taylor) is a descendant of a long line of revolutionaries who are naturally skeptical of Bob. Sensei Sergio (Benicio del Toro) is a karate school instructor by day - with students that include Bob and Perfidia's daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) - and a passionate community leader supporting undocumented immigrants by night.

Colonel Steve Lockjaw (Sean Penn) is a perfect villain born to fight them all. While the film is replete with turbulence between ideologies, classes, races and even eras, it is Lockjaw's life that is uniquely defined by conflict. He is programmed for nothing else; he is an unknowing victim of the system he fights for. I suspect the title "One Battle After Another" refers most of all to Lockjaw and any likeminded folks whose greatest enemy is the one staring back at them in the mirror.

Willa and her friends are now maturing into their own revolution, and the plot evolves from there. From an acting standpoint, Infiniti matches the A-listers step for step, to the point that you debate whether they might not be having more trouble keeping up with *her. It's an awesome performance from a prodigious young talent. Leo and Benicio fit like a glove despite how they've never worked together before. Their scenes recall Benicio's chemistry with Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and each is instantly memorable.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson is fully in tune with the dynamics between characters and story, and how he's building suspense. He often interjects sounds from the next scene precisely when the audience is anticipating another event on camera. You feel like you're being teased. Likewise, immaculate shots from DP Michael Bauman are designed with multiple layers of meaning. For example, the repeated use of the term "ocean waves" in the script is later matched by images of desert waves on screen. PTA and his team clearly have fun with this picture as they play with what we see, hear and feel on different levels, and this film demands a second viewing to be fully appreciated. For his part, long-time collaborator Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead is on top form by providing music with staccato piano and plucky guitar to sustain momentum and make the experience feel shorter than the 2.5-hour running time. When fully formed songs do come in, they're effective if for no other reason than offering respite from the ticklish score.

Some have been misled into thinking the movie preaches political messaging. I reckon this was merely a promotional tactic from the studio and both liberal and conservative outlets took the bait, for this is primarily a story about family. One needn't take a side in the conflict to enjoy the payoff. For any leftists who aim to support those living on the margins, Bob Ferguson serves their agenda, if comically. For any depraved self-sabotaging nihilistic buffoons who've been hoodwinked into doing legwork for billionaires, there's a seat for them too, through the equally comical Steve Lockjaw. For everyone else it's just entertaining cinema, with a plot powered by the classic Hollywood themes of estrangement, belonging and community, alongside the timeless 'politics' of LOVE.

In Joe Kosinski's F1, Brad Pitt plays journeyman race car driver and former New York cabbie Sonny Hayes (no word yet on what he did with his medallion). Sonny is coaxed out of retirement by old pal Ruben (Javier Bardem) to help the latter build respectability for his struggling Formula 1 team, which includes talented young Joshua (Damson Idris). You can imagine the plotlines that emerge from there: the old versus the new, legacy and redemption, David and Goliath, conflicts, romances and front office disputes, alongside a plethora of highlights behind the wheel.

Pitt remains one of our true legends. The master of very-good-maybe-not-great flicks (though he's had his share of great ones too!). F1 fits neatly in his canon. Better yet, he seems like he's enjoying himself and making the most of the moment. As with his only previous sports film Moneyball, the writing is forced to balance technical gobbledygook for insiders with oversimplified explanations for the rest of us. There's no easy way to serve both groups- and hardcore F1 enthusiasts are bound to resent the liberties taken with their sport- but Pitt and his castmates bridge the gap as well as one could expect.

The performances overall are perhaps not great. Scenes veer between hits and misses, often one after the other. Thankfully Pitt holds his own throughout. In a few rocky exchanges with Joshua's mother Bernadette (Sarah Niles), he doesn't pour gas on the fire when it's not working. He stays in his proverbial lane and keeps the car moving for the both of them. Bardem has more trouble- owing to his banal character having absolutely nowhere to go, which leads Ruben into an array of cul de sacs. But again, Brad's steady hand makes him more tolerable as well. It's an impressive display of a Hollywood titan gently pulling his co-stars out of the flames of a somewhat combustible script.

A greater weakness is that the editing is not always sharp, with continuity gaffes aplenty (e.g., half-full glasses that appear at a different level in the next shot; facial expressions and hand gestures that reset when the camera shifts; etc.). But if you're not a stickler for detail, that shouldn't bug you either since there's so much other flash to draw your focus.

And there really is: F1 is a BIG production, which occasionally demands we suspend our disbelief. Thankfully we have that skill! When Bernadette swoons over her first sighting of Sonny - "Mmm, that's a handsome man, Joshua" - we don't jump out of our seat to remind her, "Yes honey, because it's Brad Pitt!" So it's clear we know we're at the movies, right? Ok perfect lol. It helps to keep that in mind so as to not get trapped in the implausibility of certain plot devices, events and visuals. To be sure, the on-track photography is sublime and the action heart-stopping (if not realistic). Kosinski and DP Claudio Miranda are in their element here and frame Grand Prix racing in a way that is explosive and uniquely theirs. And while I'm sure it would look beautiful on a tablet/laptop too, the theater is a must if you're a film junkie aiming to appreciate the craft. I personally saw it in Standard, but figure the IMAX experience would be the ultimate.

F1 is a classic summer blockbuster. Which is to say it's not meant to be taken too seriously. You'll have some laughs, shed some tears and even take some inspiration from the story. You'll see old friends, meet new ones, and have a generally good time at the movies. As long as we remember in the end it's all F1 & games, this one's well worth the ride.

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong directs this timely feature about how unchecked AI and deep fakes could lead real people in real countries to start real turmoil. The world reaches its breaking point just as four tech bros embark on a "no deals (= no business), no meals (= no staff) and no high heels (= no women)" retreat to Mountainhead, one of their luxury abodes in Utah, where they gaslight themselves into insouciance for having society's blood on their hands.

All four narcissists arrive with personal demons. Ven (Cory Michael Smith) wants to go "post-human" to relieve the stress that plagues him as the richest man alive. Randall (Steve Carell) is terminally ill and wants to live forever. Soups (Jason Schwartzman) is an insecure centi-millionaire desperate to crack the billionaires' club. And Jeff (Ramy Youssef) is the young upstart whose conscience weighs him down, though it's unclear whether that's a pre-existing force in his life or just the result of the technology he sells (i.e., guardrails for AI). Regardless, Jeff is the voice of reason and the audience participates through his journey. Whatever happens to Jeff can be seen as happening to all of us.

The Succession vibe is felt on every frame, surely by design. Armstrong brings back Nicholas Britell to provide the score, along with many of Succession's producers and crew in their respective roles. Since there's no way for a 100-minute film to replicate the nuances that made the show so popular over four full seasons, Mountainhead's cast attempts to re-create the same magic from scratch.

On that front, the actors hold their own. Carell and Schwartzman are reliable as ever, but Smith and Youssef are the real standouts. They somehow land their lines without getting in each other's way. This is particularly important given the tech-speak that permeates the script: boss cock; surpasso; emotionally incontinent; AI dooming; hyper-scale data centers; deceleration alarmism; doom-looping; de minimis; 8K photo-real; the antidote to bad tech is good tech... I mean it's an endless stream of rapid-fire gobbledygook--- but you never feel trapped or disoriented as a viewer. I credit that to their preparation as individuals and chemistry as a unit.

In terms of the point of the movie, I feel it could have been tightened up somewhat. In one hilarious sequence, a character is pressured by the others to acquiesce to *their plan for *his future: "Smile... show your teeth!" It's a brilliant, meaningful line that gets reiterated a few times, albeit too subtly for my taste. I think it could have been uttered at least once more to emphasize the idea of smiling for the camera while being forced against one's will, and thereby summarizing life under an oligarchy: we're merely pawns in somebody else's game.

Another exchange I enjoyed which reflects the dialogue in the film:

"I just feel if I could get us off this rock it would solve so much!" - Ven

"Well you know, it's a solid starter planet but we've outgrown it, no doubt..." - Randall

"I just want to get us transhuman! Life up on grid, Tron biking around, digital milkshakes-" - V

"To actually be in Plato's Academy *with Plato!" - R

"I just feel like the universe is taking a grip and tearing me apart. Like my torso's getting pulled apart with tremendous force and the emptiness of the galaxy is just rushing in." - V

"Mmm, not good." - R

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Whether Elon-Zuck-Bezos actually talk like this is besides the point. The film is fair in marking their priorities, in the same way that insiders believe the satire of Dr Strangelove could have easily happened in real life. To me, we can pursue life "up on grid" when we're dead- I'm sure there's plenty to discover out there lol! But to push into new galaxies at the expense of the world we've been blessed with is self-defeating. Mountainhead is clear about this, as well as the absurdity of rich people having the power to impose their will on the rest of us, plunder the earth and promote chaos in order to bankroll their next project, especially when none of the fruits will even be seen in our lifetimes-

I think this is where they want me to show my teeth.