really great and pretty much exactly what i expected from this, for better or worse. if anything, best movie partially set in philly since the irishman.

this probably sounds dreadful considering the runtime (i promise you the rest is also good), but this thing honestly peaked for me with its opening. the shot of a distorted gaze at lady liberty is not only the sort of image to get a viewer locked in, but it also feels like, to a certain extent, the perfect thesis statement for what corbet has been trying to achieve with his recent features. is it obvious? without a doubt, but the whole damn picture is quite blunt about everything it’s trying to convey, and corbet uses that approach to birth a moment of true poeticism despite it all.

as referenced in my opening statement, the technical aspects are as phenomenal as you’ve heard. lol crawley’s 35mm vistavision photography is stunning, creating some of the most memorable imagery of last year. i've always thought corbet's main auteurist trait on a technical level is his merging of diverging aesthetics, and that quality is at its most finely tuned here. all love to the late scott walker, who also did impeccable work with corbet, but daniel blumberg’s score is truly one for the ages. also dávid jancsó’s magical edit deserves more love. not only is this thing paced seamlessly (can’t believe i would ever say this about something so vast, but i really could’ve gone for another hour if needed), but the blending of archival material and few moments of stillness makes for some of the best editing from last year.

i anticipated this considering most of the glowing festival reactions focused on the actual filmmaking at hand more than anything, but corbet and vastvold’s script is what really holds this back from being the presumed Next Great American Epic in my eyes. it’s not a bad script, but most of the ideas presented never really left an impact on me personally. as expected from hearing corbet talk about what initially inspired the film, everything regarding how art fits into capitalism and the exploitation that comes from that was where the pic was at its most compelling to me. the exploration of jewish identity was interesting in spurts, but it ultimately feels modest. i don’t know, maybe after a rewatch or having meaningful dialogue with others about the film i can convert to completely loving it, but for now i'm not really extracting much from this experience after the fact, which i find weird for something clearly channeling pta's style of storytelling. pta, in my opinion, is at his most interesting and magical when you realize how the film stuck with you afterwards. with this, it feels like the polar opposite. at least at the moment.