"Would answers make a good thing better?"

This is unprecedented. Mike Flanagan, a director whose work I've frankly never cared for, steps outside the horror genre that has been his bread and butter... and creates a masterpiece.

I'm sure plenty of people will find The Life of Chuck overly sentimental. It's 2025's Here. But as I said with Here, in an age where everyone is ironically detached and cynical toward everything, earnest sentimentality is cool again.

This is going to sound made up but I promise it's true: this is Tom Hiddleston's first performance in a non-franchise film in 10 years.

“Wherever there's oil there's Americans.”

“Why are ghosts such bad liars? Because they’re so easy to see through.”

The daily consumption of real-world suffering broadcast from the internet for all to see has simultaneously turned us into both victims and perpetrators, haunted by images and voices of the dead.

Can’t believe this film exists and I’m so glad it does.

Barry Levinson’s notes (probably):

- “Let’s make a war movie that’s anti-war in the vaguest possible sense but we should also give it heavy ‘thank you for your service’ vibes.”

- “Robin Williams is great, can we make 1/3 of his jokes problematic so his performance will feel super outdated?”

- “Also his character should have a B-plot where he romantically pursues a very young Vietnamese woman, but it won’t really serve to further the narrative in any meaningful way.”

- “I don’t want us to be too subtle so let’s include a montage of war crimes set to What a Wonderful World.”