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Finally watched this (on Max), because I had been convinced by all the bad reviews that I'd be wasting my time and money.

As I watched and waited for the film--which up that early point seemed nothing short of brilliant--to tank, I finally realized that the bad reviews were (forgive the pun) completely tone-deaf, and this moral/gender/genre bending film was the best movie I'd seen since last year's two masterpieces, Oppenheimer and Poor Things.

And perhaps even better. For Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix's writing and performance will someday be remembered as one of the great tandems in cinema history.

And, oh yes, what do those same critics think now, with the public's current , fascination with Luigi Mangione, in light of this eerily prophetic film?

Since when does this money-grubbing, talentless manager have a thick Jewish accent? In addition to all the other reasons Hanks' pathetic performance has been almost universally panned, this is the most perplexing. As someone who grew up in the South listening to Elvis in the 50's, I was appalled by this profoundly shallow film, but I was also disturbed by Hanks' perplexing performance.

All you have to do is listen to the real Colonel Tom Parker (FOR EX WATCH ONE OF THE YOUTUBE VIDEOS, SUCH AS HIS INTERVIEW WITH TED KOPPEL ON ABC'S NIGHTLINE,) to realize that the real Parker didn't sound or look-ugh, that hooked nose--Jewish at all.

Perhaps it's because, unlike others like Lanzmann, Resnais, Spielberg, et al., Ken Burns and his crew of expert documentarians come to the subject with all their finely-tuned skills in presenting important historical events, this is, for me, the most powerful, and upsetting rendering of the subject I have ever seen. Although the subject is, ostensibly, the role the United States played--or did not play--in dealing with the murder of millions of innocent civilians merely because they were Jewish, what I found most impressive was the focus on the transformation of ordinary, often happy lives throughout Europe into a brutal, horrifying nightmare. As one of the interviewees puts it, the emphasis on the death-camps, while certainly justified, tends to overlook the everyday brutality of innocent men, women and, equally, children being routinely and heartlessly ostracized by their "friends," humiliated, beaten, thrown from the rooftops of building, burnt, and, if lucky, merely shot.

It's very hard to talk about this film, but one must acknowledge the great achievement of these filmmakers.