Note: this post contains significant spoilers for not only the Matrix (1999), but also the Matrix Reloaded (2003) and Revolutions (2003). If you somehow haven’t seen these movies, go watch them! Then read this post. Neo meeting the Oracle in the original Matrix (1999) During the second act of the original Matrix film, the Oracle… Continue reading On freedom and choice within the Matrix trilogy
Tag: Film
The long view: David Cronenberg’s ‘Crash’ and Roe versus Wade
Early on in David Cronenberg’s Crash (1996), James Spader’s eponymous James is driving Holly Hunter’s Helen to the airport after the latter’s husband has been killed and her car destroyed. As they drive, the sexual tension between the two is visceral, and James pulls at his seatbelt in frustration–almost as though thumbing at the belt… Continue reading The long view: David Cronenberg’s ‘Crash’ and Roe versus Wade
The beauty and subtlety of Spider-Man 2
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (2004) is one of my favorite films. While the original Spider-Man (2002) sees Peter Parker internalizing the adage that “with great power, comes great responsibility,” Spider-Man 2 takes this message further: Peter learns the meaning not only of responsibility, but of commitment, which in this film signals choosing responsibility even despite… Continue reading The beauty and subtlety of Spider-Man 2
Shrugging at collapse: the wisdom of “A Serious Man”
When I was first recommended the Coen brothers’ 2009 film “A Serious Man,” I had just been through a breakup with the woman I thought I would marry. I felt that my life was falling apart around me, and in my pain, I was longing for answers. Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik The film’s protagonist,… Continue reading Shrugging at collapse: the wisdom of “A Serious Man”
The Lives of Others as the ultimate Enneagram five template
One of my all-time favorite films, 2006’s The Lives of Others, concerns life under the Stasi in east Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the film, a Stasi operative named Gerd Wiesler is tasked with surveilling a pair of lover-artists, writer Georg Dreyman and actress Christa-Maria Sieland, because the state suspects them… Continue reading The Lives of Others as the ultimate Enneagram five template
Jackson Holzberg Buckley 