The Code

The 2020s are a decade in film that refuses to acknowledge itself. Look at the most popular films of the past 5 years, both blockbuster and indie, and most chose to completely ignore the current century. They hide from the present through genres like fantasy and sci-fi, or period pieces (90s movies! So hot right now! Conveniently just a few years before the mass adoption of cell phones). There are all sorts of different theories on this. Screenwriters say that cell phones make plotting difficult, whereas cinematographers complain that phones are difficult to capture. Or perhaps the modern person is too cynical and nihilistic to make a good film protagonist. Anyways, this movie is not perfect, but I left it feeling so much more exhilarated that I had watching a movie in a long time. Moments of this movie had such strong verisimilitude for how certain people think, talk, and act post-Covid. The editing was so good, seamlessly weaving together so many different media sources - at one point it felt like this is the movie Malick would make if he grew up online instead of 1950s Austin.