Our lives are the sum of our choices

McQuarrie clearly loves Cold War movies and I love that he does. Its seriousness does take away from some of the most exciting action to grace the screen since the last time a M:I movie was released which makes it more of a downer affair than a popcorn movie tends to be. Speaking of popcorn, I want one of those popcorn buckets now though.

We're not done yet

There will never be another John Wick, but if this is the quality of the best of the knock offs then we're still in decent hands. I would watch at least two more of these essentially DTV Hartnett vehicles if this does well.

Get on with it

When I look at you I don't see your mistakes

Crazy how good a superhero movie can be when you approach it like an actual movie: real stakes, emphasis on character, and mostly playing in the real world rather than fake slop. When it's serious, it's never preachy and when it's funny, it's not at the expense of any other emotion. I won't say Marvel is back because that would be just untrue but it's certainly a refreshing breath of air from the likes of D&W and Brave New World. I'll give it a 5, I don't even care.

I'm quite at my leisure

I still find this immensely underrated in general film discourse. When you talk about stylish execution, Wright's exemplary filmmaking should be at least mentioned. The blocking and camera movements are some of the most stylish and expressive and when combined with the dewy morning and golden hour lighting it becomes otherworldly.

I like to things my own way

What a wild experience. If the Pete portion had been as strong as the Pullman portion I would call this my favourite Lynch pretty easily. As it was I found myself enjoying it but didn't quite live up to the heights of the first third. That being said some of the visuals will be burned into my brain and the sound design was phenomenal. I'm sure this would go hard on a second watch too but the theatre is necessary on this one.

I watch her, I assume she watches me

Not the type of movie that brings people to the cinema in droves, but the exact type of mid-budget mystery thriller that cinema sorely needs more of. Fun but serious filmmaking that is generally put to crowd-please a specific type of crowd of which I am definitely a part of. Any time a movie trusts its audience to simply watch professionals at the height of their profession just doing their profession is my jam. Soderbergh is seriously underrated.

You gave them something to aspire to

Not without its flaws, the lazy but somewhat necessary exposition dumps, overstuffed setups, references and callbacks, uninspired and confusing needle drops, and fairly standard CGI-slop for an ending but for the most part this is solid. It was nice to actually enjoy an MCU movie in four years and refreshing that this maintains its own unique visual language and motif throughout and mostly avoids the bland Marvel sheen that's been slapped on recent projects.

It's amazing how a movie with no words could create this level of thought-provoking ideas to discuss after.

Your songs are like oil paintings at the dentist

Much less elusive (unlike Dylan himself) than I first perceived the film as being, largely thanks to knowing what the cryptic philosophy nuggets being dropped conclude with narratively. While the film presents Dylan's constantly shifting nature as ironically unchanging, The Times They Are A-Changin' becomes less of the catchy anthem the in-film audience perceives it as, but rather a cry for help from Dylan about his own inability to change himself to be anything other than different. But all anyone can do is watch and react, with close-ups indicating both awe and approval, disdain and disgust.