The Matrix Resurrections
Reviewed for Slant Magazine
The cunning narrative arc of Resurrections is one of renewal in the face of rebooting. The film is well and winkingly aware of its status as a money-making property, a sequel that didn’t need to be made. And it posits that soulless motivation as a philosophical roadblock (one of many) for Neo and Trinity to overcome—with a little help from their fans. Not since Mary Martin’s Peter Pan implored a generation of young Americans to clap for a near-death Tinkerbell has there been a production with quite this level of fourth-wall-breaking earnestness.