"When is a Machine not a Machine?"

“there are two types of people in the world: those who prefer to be sad among others, and those who prefer to be sad alone.”
― Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

Hello everybody! Feeling pretty overwhelmed with everything going on both personally, and also in the world right now. Trying to make progress on multiple projects at the moment, and struggling to feel satisfied with any of it. I’m hoping by next week I’ll have some stuff I can share at least, but everything feels like I’m wading through sludge at the moment.

I hope your October is off to a good start! The weather is perfect for warm drinks, fires, and reading books. Do you have a favorite fall activity?

We’ve had a few movies this year trying to figure out how to best capture this political moment we’re in. Some movies, like The Apprentice, try to capture actual historical stories and translate how they relate to today. Others, like Eddington, came close but ultimately missed the mark, for me, in trying to convey any sort of meaning or message. Enter: One Battle After Another.

Paul Thomas Anderson is a filmmaker who’s movies don’t always work for me. I love The Master and Phantom Thread but found Boogie Nights and Punch Drunk love inscrutable. I haven’t seen There Will Be Blood since college so I honestly don’t know how I feel about it.

One Battle After Another blew me away. For a movie that’s over 2.5 hours long I did not feel its length at all. It tackles a thoughtful breakdown on our current political age with an actual agenda - all these people who are revolutionaries, and people in power, and groups with agendas - they’re all messy. Nothing is as clear cut as we’d like.

I rarely do this but I’m real hopeful I can get a rewatch of this in soon.

One Battle After Another is currently in theaters.

Thanks for reading!