- Neil Patrick Harris and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II join Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss in the fourth installment of the franchise rich in hidden gems. A blue tablet isn’t necessary. By and large, The Matrix Resurrections is an intriguing and lively film that belongs on the same shelf as the breakthrough original from 1999. It recalls that mind-scrambling pseudo-intellectual yammering gets boring on-screen if there isn’t also some joy, unlike the soul-crushingly dreary prior episode, The Matrix Revolutions.
Fortunately, director Lana Wachowski, collaborating with scripting colleagues David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon for the first time, has incorporated plenty of flashbacks. It isn’t required to see the film again. But, when you’ve seen it, talk about the new one.
Following an introduction to new characters that are mysteriously embedded into The Matrix’s initial scene? (Does this seem like the Holodeck?) We catch up with Keanu Reeves’ Neo, but he’s now working as Thomas Anderson as an office drone. It’s not 1999 anymore; it’s 2021, at least, that’s what we think. Could this, rather than the myth of The Nebuchadnezzar and The One freeing Zion from The Architect and the Machines, be the genuine fundamental reality?
If that’s the case, The Matrix trilogy as we know it was merely a game series developed by Anderson, and the strange sensations he gets about the world around him are things he wants to work out with his therapist, Neil Patrick Harris. However, the boundary between fiction and reality in Anderson’s life becomes even hazier at the same time as it does in the script for The Matrix Resurrections.
In a highly self-referential move, Anderson is told that he must produce a sequel to his original Matrix trilogy since corporate overlords Warner Bros. would do it with or without him. (In the strangest reality of all, Hollywood, this is what happened to Wachowski.)
It gets even crazier when we learn that Anderson modeled Trinity on a girl he meets at his neighborhood coffee shop (dubbed the Simulate, ha ha ha), Carrie-Anne Moss.
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What exactly is the Matrix?
Anderson’s persistent concern prompts him to construct a “modal,” a little software that attempts to unravel the fabric of existence on its own. First, a program (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) takes on the role of Morpheus, Laurence Fishburne’s character from the original trilogy.
It all makes sense. But, more importantly, what is this new Matrix in which Anderson (and Moss’s “Tiffany”) find themselves?
I think we’ll all need a second viewing to grasp this fully. Still, the most intriguing aspect is how Harris’s Analyst, who serves the same purpose as the Architect in the original trilogy, has discovered a way to extract more power from pod-sleeping humans by tormenting them with what we call tsuris in the Jewish faith.
Heartbreak, sadness, and general bad vibes seem to be all over the place these days, and The Matrix Resurrections claims that this is due to a malignant computer program pushing our psyches for some additional juice. Of course, the Analyst is unaware that when Neo and Trinity work together, a more robust force emerges: the power of pure love.
Due to the Dutch lockdown, the Rotterdam International Film Festival has moved online:
Until at least mid-January, all non-essential shops, as well as cinemas, schools, museums, and catering services, will be shuttered.
The 51st edition’s program, including the movie roster and IFFR Talks, will be available on IFFR.com in an online version. CineMart and Rotterdam Lab, two IFFR Pro industry events, will be streamed live online, as previously stated. During a press briefing in early January, they will reveal further information about the modified lineup.
“In light of current concerns and uncertain conditions surrounding the global health crisis, IFFR has decided to conduct a scaled-down festival program online,” the festival stated in a statement. “Previous statements from the festival revealed intentions for an intensive on-site program for IFFR 2022, which is no longer achievable.”
The following festival has been added: “Even if the present limitations are eased after January 14, the festival’s sheer enormity is no longer consistent with a last-minute switch to a Rotterdam in-person event.”
The IFFR, which is known for celebrating cinema and providing a platform for filmmakers from all over the world, said it “acknowledges that the impact of this critical decision is widely felt.
To provide students with access to IFFR-curated movies, the festival’s education programs will be altered or postponed in the year.
For 2022, it will stream the Rotterdam Film Festival live online:
Due to the statewide shut down in the Netherlands to combat the emergence of the Omicron form of Covid-19, the 51st edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam will take place online (from January 26 to February 6) for the second year in a row.
Festival organizers are trying to reach out to filmmakers and figure out logistics. They’re working out how to tone down the program and rethink the approach for the online edition a little over a month before IFFR begins. As a hybrid event, the industrial program was already underway.
Past Sunday (December 19), the Dutch government announced its latest lockdown in response to a surge of positive Covid tests, with 95,000 in the last week alone. According to the current guidelines, all non-essential shops, as well as cinemas, schools, museums, and restaurants, must close until at least January 14, 2022.
When contacted by Screen, a senior IFFR staff member declined to comment at this time due to the numerous contingency plans that still need to be implemented. “Even if the present constraints are eased after January 14, the festival’s sheer enormity is no longer compatible with a last-minute switch to a Rotterdam in-person event.”
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has acknowledged the impact their decision is likely to have on the filmmaking community and the festival’s spectators. (This usually is one of Europe’s most well-attended festivals, with over 1500 screenings and well over 300,000 cinema attendance in a typical year.) In most cases, IFFR hosts at least 2000 industry experts.)
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