The Matrix Resurrections: Great Mix of Deep Philosophy and Fast-Moving Action

I just saw The Matrix Resurrections on HBO Max.  It may be the best Matrix since The Matrix -- that is, the first movie, so I'm saying Resurrections may be better than the two earlier sequels, certainly better than the third in the original trilogy, Revolutions.

One of the reasons I'm thinking this is how well the meta angle is handled in Resurrections.  We find Neo working as a programmer, whose great accomplishment was writing a computer game called "The Matrix".  He's sucked into a journey in which reality vs. fiction as an explanation for what is happening vie for our attention at every incandescent turn, and there are many of them.  

[Note: For once, or as a rarity, there WON'T be any big spoilers ahead ... ]

Let's talk about the acting.  Keanu Reeves as Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity were excellent.  I was prepared to be annoyed at Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Morpheus and Jonathan Groff as Smith, because their original incarnations by Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving were so brilliantly, searingly memorable.   But the new actors for these crucial characters were quite good.  In the first three movies, Smith was for most part the more keenly acted and therefore more unforgettable character -- delivering such now immortal lines as, to Neo, "How can you speak if you have no mouth?" with perfect laser, razor precision --  and even though Groff is not quite as knife's edge as Weaving, his Smith will be somewhat memorable, too.

Among the new characters, by far my favorite was Neil Patrick Harris as The Analyst -- a big step up from Doogie Howser, MD but in a related medical profession -- and I very much liked the unpredictable villainous kindred relationship between him and Smith.  Both had a fair share of bon mots, and if I had to choose the most profound it would be The Analyst's observation that feelings make fictions real.  In addition to these lines that could have come from Plato -- who notoriously distrusted both feelings and art (see his Republic) -- we also get some good ultra-contemporary commentary from some of the characters.  I guess my favorite would be the Merovingian's, a returning character, who lashes out at both Facebook and Wikipedia in a tense, verge of bursting into action scene.  It's probably worth noting that Facebook didn't exist when we last saw Merv in Revolutions in 2003, and Wikipedia was just a tiny three years old, so his denunciation of these two social media giants is understandable, if not fair to Wikipedia, which has done far more good and much less damage than Facebook.

Without telling you anything more about the plot, I'll say it's plausible, exciting, and works well with its three predecessors.   The action and special effects were outstanding, as always, and the characters' awareness of the deep philosophic issues that underlie their exploits endows this movie with a refreshing intellectual heft.  I'd say The Matrix Resurrections is a triumph of a reboot, and one of the best now around in the burgeoning genre.

The Neon Demon: Van Goughian Nigtmare

I saw The Neon Demon - an original Amazon movie - late last night.  It was listed as a thriller-horror - but that was enough to attract my interest, as well as short roles by Mad Men's Christina Hendricks and everyone's Keanu Reeves.   I don't know if I'd call it either a thriller or a horror, though it had plenty of blood.  Van Goughian nightmare might be a better label.

The single best part of The Neon Demon, written and directed  Nicolas Winding Refn, was the color.  It was a treat, a roller coaster ride, and an assault on the senses - which is to say, the surreal, Impressionistic coloring in every scene was a major and memorable player in this story.  In that sense, Neon Demon has a kinship with Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge.

But The Neon Demon has a barely discernible story, or narrative that so closely intertwined with someone's dream that the plot is difficult to follow.  The gist is that Jesse (well played by Elle Fanning) is a beautiful 16-year old, advised by Christina Hendrick's character to say she's 19, who is trying to break into the LA model scene.  She's befriended by Ruby (Jena Malone), the most interesting character in the movie, a make-up artist for models and the dead, which says something right there.   Meanwhile, Jesse's so gorgeous that she does break in - as well as being coveted by all manner of men and women - but the price is her own mentality.

Assuming that crucial parts of the story are in her head not actually on and in her body.  At times, this razor-edge ambiguity works perfectly - as when we discover that Jesse's corpse made love to in the morgue is (likely) not her assailant's fantasy but Jesse's.  But other times, I needed a little more to know whether the copious blood on the screen was really flowing or just imagined.

There's also some intelligent aesthetic philosophy in The Neon Demon, mainly about how important erotic beauty - stunning sexual attractiveness - really is in human life, and in Hollywood in particular. In that regard, The Neon Demon is also reminiscent of some David Lynch's work, including Blue Velvet, one of my all-time favorite movies.

But The Neon Demon is something different.  See it with a grain of salt, and be prepared to be disappointed and engaged, annoyed and bedazzled, all at the same time. 

John Wick: A Man and His Dog

John Wick is being billed as Keanu Reeves' best film since The Matrix.  It is.   And, if no-holds-barred shoot-em-ups like Banshee are your glasses of tea, you might like it even more.

John Wilk, played by Reeves, is a hit-man who, against all odds, managed to get out of the business alive and relatively happy.  In this, John Wilk shares a provenance with movies like Assassins with Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas, in my view the very best of this genre, in which there's of course always something to get the retired assassin drawn back in.

In Wick's case, it's a double punch.  His wife, whose love got him to leave the business, dies of natural causes.   She arranged to send him a sweet little puppy to keep him company after she's gone. But the headstrong son of a Russian mob boss makes the mistake of cruelly killing the puppy when stealing the keys to Reeves' car.

The death of the puppy was a highly effective and moving scene.   It certainly made me want to bring those bad guys to justice, and it was the motivation that set Wick back to his lifetime profession.   When the dog killer wonders to Wick and others why Wick is so upset about the puppy's death - "it's just a fucking dog" - we know, having witnessed its killing and what happened with Wick and the puppy before that, why that little puppy was so much more.

The action is great, even though there were a couple of easy shots that Wick missed, in service of the plot, and there were a couple of holes in the plots logic, too.  But, on the other hand, the supporting cast was outstanding, including Lance Reddick of The Wire, Lost, and Fringe fame, who's always good to see on the screen, and Willem Dafoe as another hit man.

If the Russian mob, bigger than life killers, and hotels for assassins with rules of the house that must be followed if you don't want to be killed yourself, take a 90-minute break and check out this fine movie.