First time I’ve been perfectly okay with a Wes Anderson t in a while. Plenty of his signature humor that tickles me in a way no other comedy can replicate (gonna be shouting “You’ve been fiddling with it!” to my girlfriend a lot over the next few days), and his continuing experimentation with his style remains engaging as ever. I’m a little hot and cold on the actual story and ideas here, though maybe future viewings will smooth things out…

IMAX

As someone who actually enjoys The Dark Knight Rises and The Rise of Skywalker for their bold, maximalist approach to narrative/emotional closure for their respective stories, I was ready to embrace Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning as a flawed-yet-unmistakably-gargantuan feat of moviemaking that is content to coast on its own vibrations regardless of how (im)perfectly it ties up every loose end. Well… it’s certainly flawed, and it’s certainly gargantuan, but what I wasn’t counting on was just how weirdly…

I’ve recently come across a few negative takes on this, which all seem to stem from the perspective that this is little more than a neoliberal, nice-core coddle; a pop art lullaby that assures us that, even in a world of infinite possibility and beauty, the life we live is all we’ve got, and that we must make the best of whatever messes it leaves for us to deal with. While I do sympathize and somewhat agree with the worldview…