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MAIN FEED DISCUSSION - The Matrix Resurrections (Patreon)

Published:
2024-07-08 21:47:28
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Pour yourself a cortado or tiny coffee of your choice and give us your thoughts on this week's The Matrix Resurrections episode!

Comments

Keegon

I remember being lightly obsessed with the Enter the Matrix game on Playstation 2 but now I remember virtually nothing about it

J Kyle Wilsor

Barista here. A cortado is much like a latte, it’s just equal parts espresso and steamed milk rather than a heavy milk pour. One of my faves too, along with many other baristas I know.

Meg

There was a point when you both agreed people wouldn’t have known Jonathan Groff for heteronormative roles prior to this movie - I can’t have been the only one shouting MINDHUNTER!!!!

James Sykora

Enter the Matrix was the tie-in game starring Niobe that took place in the lead-up to/concurrent with Reloaded. The Matrix Online MMO is the game that takes place after the trilogy and is where Morpheus dies and a bunch of other bullshit (I never played it, but I read about it before Resurrections came out).

Matthew

saying nightmare alley made 5 dollars had me dying

Samuel Mc

insane choice- a movie that left me with a bored ‘meh’ and got worse and worse as I left the theatre. People mention the subversive nature of the film but it’s only source material is the one scene of the vid game devs practically turning to camera explicitly saying “what if we make a bad remake WINK”

Christina Binder

Someone explain to me what "a bugs life" has to do with this movie. The Twitter hints had me stumped again!

Tales From a Costume Designer

Excellent episode per usual! Fun fact: "Chad" is played by Chad Stahelski, Keanu's BFF and former stunt double and director of all John Wick movies. He was also the martial arts stunt coordinator for both Matrix sequels 😎

John Ananias

All right, if i may blather on a bit... For as much sci-fi, "hard" or otherwise, as I love, I...have never loved the original MATRIX, let alone the sequels. The talk about how the Neo/Trinity love story not being among the top 10 things you'd single out as great about it/the initial trilogy, to me that's getting at a major flaw, I find that love story (introduced LATE in the first film as it is) unconvincing and not enough to be as integral to the series as it ultimately needs to be. I just don't find the films to be as emotional as they're purported to be or want to be. Now, I sort of WANT to love THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS and its metatextual justification of its existence, and a good deal of that did really work for me, I'm mixed-positive on the movie at the end of the day. If-when I mention raising a skeptical eyebrow about a film having had Oscar buzz, I'm neveer *complaining* about it being covered here...but this is an interesting one, because it more felt like it *should have had* Oscar buzz than really HAD it - though yes, it was on a couple of those shortlists. The release just felt so...muted; it did not feel like it was a priority for WB, seemed to come and go in theaters real quuickly, and not just because of the COVID of it all. So many film people have the knee-jerk instinct to shout out Marvel like it's THE franchise system ruining us all, but the industry plague that I find this movie interesting for tackling and which seems to motivate it is the nostalgia virus that dredges up stories/franchises that have had their day but still technically have some recognition - RESURRECTIONS may end up looking all the better if-when this MATRIX reboot/revamp/rewhatever from Drew Goddard sees the light of day, but beyond this universe, in 2024 alone we've had an OMEN prequel (which sounds laughable but hey, some people seemed to like it), an animated GARFIELD reboot, people who aren't me are hyped for a TWISTER sequel-that-looks-more-like-a-remake-I-guess, a long-threatened-erm-I-mean-"awaited" 4th BEVERLY HILLS COP just hit Netflix (and there may or may not be a 5th Shrek and a Donkey spin-off with Eddie Murphy in the works)....Everywhere you turn, nostalgia or the ASSUMPTION of nostalgia is pervasive, and it's usually pretty cloying even if you get the occasional TOP GUN: MAVERICK from it. I don't personally find this film satisfying enough to say, "I'm entirely convined that Lilly Wachowski had to make this," but she's *doing something* here, and I sort of envy the folks who went for it and this series in general more than me. Sorry, this was too long, but that's how I do things and that's not great, but I can't even feint toward brevity with this.

JPB Gerald

This movie is a movie that is an Interesting Idea more than actually entertaining. I feel like it exists mostly so we can give Lana "clapter", which she deserves, and it's better than an IP creation with no point, but my lord is this movie just even more navel-gazing than the two previous (bad, except for the action in Reloaded) sequels.

Lily

Great episode! At the risk of going full “the gender whisperer” here, this is a movie I love passionately and have thought about a ton, and whose trans subtext is far more complex than in the original trilogy, so it’s always fascinating to hear cis people try (in good faith, god bless you both) to wrap their heads around it. Sorry to go long like this, but I just wanted to talk about a few important points to that effect that came up during the episode: -I think it’s crucial to highlight that this movie is not anti-therapy, but specifically anti-CONVERSION therapy, as that’s what the Analyst is coded to be. He is a conversion therapist masquerading as a legitimate psychologist in order to convince Neo he’s still Thomas Anderson (as many of them do in real life). The point is not to criticize the language of therapy itself, but to criticize how the language of therapy is weaponized against us, and the ways we are pathologized in order to justify keeping us in the closet or coercing us into detransition. -Joe isn’t wrong about this movie having a lot of fun at the expense of cis gay men, and while I sympathize with some superficial itchiness about how that may rub up against the phobic tropes of yesteryear, I think it gets away with itself on the grounds of using the star personas of *these* gay men in particular to comment on the damage that assimilationist queer people as a whole can do when they start favouring the hegemony over their own communities, and this is something that’s historically screwed trans people over countless times (legislatively, it’s happening again right now). It’s for sure a deliberate punch up, but not a punch across. -I’ve always felt there tends to be a lot of making mountains out of molehills regarding the industry satire in the first act because it’s the most readily graspable element for cis viewers, but it’s hardly the only element. I’ve never seen it as the sum total of that section, but rather as the occasional comedic relief for an extremely bleak opening. The first act is steeped in the imagery and language of conversion therapy, detransition, closetedness, s**c*de, dissociation, and the medicalization of trans people in the popular conscience. As far as how this informs the industry commentary, it’s crucial to note that Neo did not just remake the Matrix trilogy from scratch inside this modal (sorry, Joe). This world was constructed by the Analyst to convince Neo that his *actual memories* of what happened to him in the original trilogy are a fabrication, and whenever Neo questions this, the Analyst steps in to manipulate him and shut him down. The Analyst has gaslit Neo into believing the truth of his existence is a delusion and a lie (again, pointedly conversion therapy-coded) and Smith is simply there to profit. It’s not just that “oh, IP dreck and the State of Things These Days” and so forth, it’s that Neo’s own past has been tokenized and misrepresented to the material benefit of the forces both within and outside the Matrix—a real-life version of which would have happened had Lana not decided to make this film, and that’s the thrust of the metacommentary, not anti-WB pettiness. (She pitched the completed script to them and they greenlit it, after all.) -In my view, the third act does successfully recontextualize the whole franchise as not just a love story, but a story about marginalized love. The reason people of certain stripes are so moved by the final half hour is that its thesis is not a reiteration of the “love conquers all” messaging of the original trilogy, but a necessary refinement: “as long as we are together in this life, we can survive in a world (by this point in the film, quite literally) designed to kill us.” There is no going back to the old ways, because their only purpose is to cause us harm. And while the way this is all executed may understandably read as pat, keep in mind that T4T couples had never been given explicit positive representation and achieved their happy ending in the mainstream until this movie. So for us, this was an entirely novel direction to take the franchise that retroactively makes the subtext of the original trilogy into the central ur-text of the entire series. Okay cutting myself off there. Again, sorry to go long! And to be clear, of course none of this means cis people have to enjoy the movie or be affected by it, but I think a huge part of the negative response to this film had to do with audiences not knowing how to process seeing such a well-known franchise be entirely disinterested in catering to them, because quite frankly that just hasn’t ever happened in blockbuster filmmaking before. Just because something is not meant for you does not mean it’s being executed poorly, either. By the same token though, I think even cis defenders of this movie can struggle to do so in specific terms because they lack the lived experience to articulate what's happening on a thematic level. So, whenever this film comes up, I feel compelled to step in and defend it on those grounds. Thanks for allowing me the space to do so here!

Joy Novak

Not from Branson, but it's not that bad - mostly weird and worth checking out. And just south of Branson, is Eureka Springs Arkansas, which is a magical little gay mecca in the middle of the Ozarks. It's amazing, definitely worth a visit.

Joy Novak

And Happy Birthday, Chris!!!

Frank McCormick

Chris's description of this movie as two lovers finding each other again in the afterlife made me think "Isn't that Dante and Beatrice, especially in the Purgatorio and Paradiso, i.e. the parts of the Divine Comedy no one cares about?" Not that Lana is "ripping off" Dante or anything, but certainly inspired by it, maybe, or stuff that was inspired by/ripped off of Dante. Is NPH a monster or just annoying, because I think we confuse the two a lot, especially gay men. Speaking of (cis white) gay men, Joe saying, "And she's right to do so" to his theory that Lana Wachowski hates cis gay white men, triggers something I've become more and more to believe: that we've ironic-homophobia'ed our way into just expressing our internalized homophobia as truth. There's a lot (a LOT) wrong and criticizable about white people, white gay people, but just appending "white" to bog-standard sexism and homophobia or whatever doesn't make it not sexist or homophobic. It's the same sort of thing that has made The Youths puriteen their way into Evangelical repression, except Woke. It's joking all the time about how "we don't deserve rights" when some mess comes on the feed. But guess what: a lot of people are working on that! It's the use of "faggot" among gay men in a way they didn't a few years ago. Yes, it's all jokes, except it isn't as much of a joke as people think it is. Sorry about the soapbox!

Samuel Mc

On the Oscar front- Visual Effects was rightfully sewn up with Dune, but Spiderman and ShangChi were both nominated in the "here's where non-Black Panther Marvel gets nominated" Category. Which is a shame because both of them have some occasionally horrendous CG work, which is additionally crazy since Godzilla V Kong and The Suicide Squad (the good one) had some truly amazing photorealistic monster work (Watch any King Shark scene and tell me I'm wrong) on top of being well lit. That was a real bug bear for me as a blockbuster enthusiast/oscar fan. (Both of those are better replacements than Matrix, sorry Chris- I truly felt insane listening to the episode. A truly baffling baffling choice)

Mac

Please more episodes where one of you hates the movie and the other doesn’t

Bobby Scanlon Jr.

On the “problematic” Harris/Groff casting, who would be alternate performers in those roles? Most casting that comes to mind would inevitably bring additional layers to their performances.

Jenny Maurer

Some thoughts : I am sorry but i couldn’t get into speed That said the only time keanu Never worked well was in 1992’s dracula Also: everyone in nightmare alley was really good except for Bradley cooper and as a result , I don’t think the academy went for it Thank you for your time and your terse (in a good way) show this week

Chauncey Telese

When bringing up Gershon I know it's not in their wheel house BUT I highly reccomend to then her performance at Denis Leary's roast. It's so fun!

Marie

As the world's #1 Sense8 enthusiast (I watch it once a year, I'm crazy) I think it's truly key text for this movie. If any Garys haven't seen Sense8 pls watch!!! you will not regret!!!!

Joy Novak

Joe, are you writing recaps of Claim to Fame anywhere? If not, please, please have an excursion episode about the season at some point this summer.

Brandon Skidmore

I agree with Chris in my affection for this movie but I have to say Joe was making POINTS. Joe were ever on a debate team?

Cecil Spencer

Just got to this episode, and I had a good time with Lisa Frankenstein & really enjoyed Carla Gugino.