The Matrix

Have you ever encountered a film so intrinsically tied to the nostalgia of your childhood, that any of its imagery or sound design, no matter how many years have passed…sends shivers of an unexplainable warmth through your entire body? As if momentarily transported back in time. The Matrix is one of those films for me. I first saw The Matrix at 7 years old. One restless evening I crept downstairs, the house cloaked in shadows and silence….and through the crack of the living room door I catch a glimpse of my father who sees me wide-eyed peering in way past my bedtime. Without a word he signals me to his side and I snuggle on the sofa next to him as the entire living room illuminates with flickers of digital green typography, a booming score glueing my eyes to the screen, and for the next two hours reality seems to blur. I was too young to completely understand everything that happened that evening, but god dammit I fucking FELT it!! Deeply. The code cascading down the screen, The ideas of trapped realities, the overlord robots, the sleek action, the unknowable power of love. It all lodged itself in my young mind. I was as engrossed as a kid could possibly be. One scene in particular has haunted me in the most beautiful way. Neo’s introduction to the Oracle. The soothing maternal warmth of the environment and character. The quiet wisdom. It vividly reminded me of my own auntie, a black woman of similar age who fostered a home of similar comfort that I visited frequently. Her space…like the Oracles, was a sanctuary. I didn’t really know that at the time, but that scene gave me an emotional language for comfort and safety I didn’t even know how to find words for yet. I haven’t revisited The Matrix in my entire adulthood. I’m not sure why. Maybe part of me was waiting for this moment? Maybe it was fate that put it on my path at the right time. Or maybe, like Neo, I had to arrive at my own “Now” to appreciate this creation at its highest level. The Matrix is more relevant than it’s ever been at this very moment in existence right now. The term “ahead of its time” barely does justice to just how much this picture was. To see this on 35mm like it was projected back in 1999 is more than an experience. It’s communion. It’s prophecy and poetry soaked in cyberpunk awesomeness!!! so special. no rating could ever do it justice. Timeless. I love cinema so much it hurts. [](https://boxd.it/KvjIe)