Having re-read the Vonnegut novel this year, and then enjoyed Richard Brody's full-throated defense of BoC in the New Yorker, I was primed to like this. I wouldn't say it was unwatchable; on the other hand, it did take me about ten sittings to get through. It's grim, depressing, obvious, flashy, over the top in sometimes interesting ways. It wallows in its critiques of a deranged America (a similar, even wilder vision would be on display in Mike Judge’s Idiocracy).…

I was a little wary for some reason going in, but it’s an incredible movie on every level:  CB has never been better; the high-level world of classical music is rendered exciting, treacherous, rapturously beautiful, petty, and human; the structure is linear yet formidably complex, with key elements kept in the dark until the right moment; the moral dimensions are explored to the fullest; the screenplay and acting are ferocious, full of intelligence and emotion; and I think why I…