There's definitely intentional doubt as to whether that's actually Antifa at the end. Your guess is probably the clearest and most interesting conclusion one could draw.

Aster knows how to f***ing start and end a film, lemme tell ya

like Beau, my favorite stuff is in the first act, but every layer of it was enjoyable in its own right

I like the way Aster writes teenagers

This year been mid as hell, we needed this

this felt like Pynchon mixed with Coens
But Aster is way more pitch black in a way that always makes me think the cynicism and bleakness is a bit of a crutch, but I always end up loving it and thinking it was right for the film

I liked Michael's character
Would love for the sequel to be about him

I like this but I really don’t get what a sequel would even focus on

i liked this movie but hard to say i loved it

it seems like i love ari’s movie’s premises but then they always just fall off a cliff. midsommar is my fav in terms of what it meant and does for horror.

i think the opening sequence, that major moment with the child actress, and above all else toni’s performance made his debut iconic, but it never was a great movie to me by any means. i just kinda feel like it falls flat.

this movie kinda had same issues.

so i revisited beau and i turned it off an hour in. once i realized it was gonna live and die by this bit, i had no interest and wasn’t giving it more of my time. i’m glad he did another one with joaquin, bc that movie seems like it’s made for no one but himself and die hard fans.

saying that to say, as many gripes as i had with this one, it’s kept me stirring a lot more than any movie i’ve seen recently.

an authentic, modern, dizzying mosaic of our “post-covid” world. until it just falls off a cliff to kinda land two really on the nose jokes. it got a good laugh from the sparse audience, but jesus christ.

it felt like ari just committed (again) to a first draft. he’s gotten criticism for needing a tighter editor and more studio restrictions. what he needs is to be willing to not write his scripts.

for as genius as his dialogue is and building narrative tension with the camera (this is why he gets blank checks written for him, he may be the best at it working in hollywood rn) he just can’t deliver a PHENOMENAL story that’s not bogged down by a bloated and excessive runtime.

back to back movies that feel more excessive than coordinated almost makes me believe he’s not the auteur this generation of film fans have made him out to be. this movie proves the fans and critics right and wrong. on the surface it may be one of his easier watches, but i think below the surface this is by far his most depraved, depressing, and cruel movies.

big tech being this kinda overbearing but invisible enemy isn’t going to be read on a first watch. the marketing and movie itself directs audiences towards an entire different focus. but the last 30 minutes and looking at the story as a whole. it’s obvious the monsters is our thirst for connection/power/mythology …

sequel to this would be idiotic unless it was about a.i data centers but even then it’s so unnecessary

i’d love for him to revisit the new mexico setting, the western genre. but a sequel is stupid

Pynchon if he were politically irrelevant and the Coens if they were unfunny teenagers. The cynicism betrays a childish form of stupidity, it's a shame because he has a knack for coming up with eerie moments.

i’m cool with the absurdity, but he’s such a narrative driven guy it feels like the two ideas are fighting against each other. the first two hours of this movie and it’s intense tonal shift was on pace to be his best work. when it falls into absurdity, it just feels like it loses its visual identity and there’s no going back

me too. he’s a talented guy i just think he’s a poor screenwriter whose too committed to first drafts. especially hearing that his first two movies were done in shortlists first… beau and this movie compels me t believe he really just commits hard to where his mind takes him on a first few drafts and doesn’t really dance too far away from those initial beats and punchlines

i felt this sentiment in the theater, but at most it made me react was an eye roll. but i don’t think this shallowness is his feelings. it’s a lazy recurring joke, but i think it’s a medium is the message kind of thing.

the actual content of decolonization conversations become irrational once it’s fed through a data center and repacked for white teens to “consume” as education rather than it being this comprehensive education that changes how you live.

on the surface, a hollywood blockbuster made by a white guy, it feels very centrist and like “look at how stupid these white liberals are. look at how stupid we are guys!”

but i think just below the surface, there’s a conversation to be had about how history is being picked apart and used in modernity. and how we have less agency over our thoughts, words, and actions than we may even begin to understand.

they marketed the f*** outta that scene and i don’t blame em, what he does with his eyes there was brilliant

type of acting u get from the greats, he does a lot for a role that doesn’t go anywhere whatsoever

all timer

This is a masterpiece. I think it's his best film yet.

I have a feeling the sequel (if it even comes to fruition) would be about vernon and rabbit, given the ending

Hmmm

I'm going in for round 2 tn. I really liked it but I've really liked all his movies, I'm not sure if this is his best or worst for me lol but it's very good. Will lock it in tonight

Spoilers:

They were a paramilitary group hired to pretend to be Antifa in order to further sow division. When Joe picks up the dead "Antifa" guys phone after the explosion, he sees the same video from Portland that he watched earlier in the movie. Since Garcia was dead, and he was pushing through the plans to build the data center there, they needed to make sure the next mayor signed off on it as well. Joe was against it. The plane they were in had solidgolfmagikarp's logo on it. The gist is that big Tech is orchestrating everything in order to keep Americans polarized.

Yeah, this was my next thought lol. Would the people who complain that Stone and Butler were underutilized be satisfied if they had their own film?? 4d chess motherfucker lol. but even still, I'm used to Wes Anderson films where great actors are essentially cameos, I felt satisfied with them. Sometimes characters serve a smaller function in the story and that's fine.

Such a cool f***ing message

This is what I was thinking happened but didn't word it in the best way. I missed the solidgoldmagikarp symbol on the plane though.

yeah get rid of Stone and Butler and this would be a way better movie

Hell no