The Radical Queer Politics of The Matrix Resurrections

This video was so great Jessie! You got at all the points that people seemed to miss with just seeing Matrix Resurrections as nostalgia bait! Solidarity forever!

I loved this video. I think, like a lot of films, that a little bit of time will give people the chance to watch it outside of the centre of the Backlash storm, and appreciate it more. A part of me is kind of happy it is seen as a commercial flop. Because it isn't, ultimately, aiming to be a shining star in the system. Often those stars burn quickly and are forgotten, those that gain their following over time are more honestly appraised and genuinely valued.

allykitten87

I’ve been waiting for this video since watching the movie!! Hope the YouTube issues will be solved soon.

Mimosa

Excellent analysis, Jessie, and I can't agree with you more about this being an important film that deserves to be seen again and remembered. Good observation on how many critics seem challenged in really understanding the message - and even the story - of a film such as this. Thank you for your work on this!

I went ahead and saved this vid to my SSD because your video in this state is pretty powerful and I want to have it like this before WB and YouTube force it to be massaged into a form that can be released without copyright strikes.

SuperDezzy

Just finishing it up right now--fantastic analysis, Jessie! (Just a couple minor quibbles: there's a stretch where you suddenly start referring to "The Analyst" as "The Catalyst", and you also call Jude "George" for a while. Oops! When I finally was able to see Resurrections last weekend (no streaming of it in Canada, it was theatres only until theatres got locked down again a while back) I can honestly say I loved it immediately--unlike the originals, which took me a while before becoming some of the very rare movies I can go back to any time. I've spent the last year coming to terms with finally realizing I'm non binary, recontextualizing my entire life (I turned 50 in October, yikes) as I finally figured out why I've never felt a connection to, well, *anything* around me. The movie was so up front with its ideas in a way the original trilogy couldn't be, I found bits of myself in almost every single character. As for the action scenes not being up to the level of the originals, I'd say first of all: well, how could they be? I still remember the criticisms of the action back then as looking like a video game, the sunglasses being a way to simplify the digital models, about the seeming lack of stakes in the big battles, and so on. I think that stuff distorted perceptions of The Discourse about the trilogy for years. But there's also the fact that, as that great quote you found from Hugo Weaving says, the alt-righters and school shooters all latched onto that incredibly cool action, took entirely the wrong message from it, and co-opted it into their own "mission". So I think first of all, Resurrections made a *very* conscious choice to make that impossible: to say, "this movie is NOT for those people, and we're not going to give them anything new to work with." But beyond that meta business, I think the entire story is being told from Neo's perspective in his current, broken state--where NOTHING around him makes sense, where he's feeling detached from everything around him no matter how many people tell him how amazing and talented he is (this *really* hit home for me). Heck, the only power he even seems able to muster before joining with Trinity is a clearly powerful but also untargeted and broadly destructive ball of force. He's disconnected from everything, including the conflict around him, lashing out in self defence. In the originals he's a uniquely powerful figure in both the digital and real worlds; that serves the agenda of the alt-right fans really well but doesn't really fit with *this* story at all. He's a *potential* power, with the ability to recognize that systematically taken from him by the very rules that form the basis of his world. So of course it'll all appear as chaos to him. I mean don't get me wrong: I'd have loved to see something 'technically' groundbreaking too, but given the past 20 years of mega budget blockbusters and the CGI takeover I don't think *anyone* could've done that in a lasting way. Maybe Lana Wachowski just decided the only way to win was not to play that game? Maybe my perspective is tainted by the fact that my (eventual) love of the originals came along *in spite of* the action (I've never been a big guns and fight scene sort of movie fan), not because of it. I don't particularly enjoy the most over the top fights in the first movie, but I *do* love the more fantastical ones in the sequels. So the chaotic and muddled action in the new one just made it feel clear (to me) that those scenes are really not what *this* movie is about, and I'm fine with that.

Thank you for letting us watch!!

Mountain Harpie

I really enjoyed Resurrections. Tried to put myself in Lana's mindspace whilst watching it and got so much more from it that I expected. It's an artists film.

It's still kinda wonderful to see someone with a point of view. Especially if I don't always agree with it Because you never learn anything by only talking to yourself. Hopefully things will start looking up for you in the near future. Stay safe, have fun and enjoy yourself.

Leotha Boyd

I'm so excited to watch this!! ❤️ I think we probably have similar Thoughts about the anti-capitalism of Ressurections

Zoe Alden

Aww thanks for giving it to us early, Jessie 🙂 I haven't seen it yet (...haven't seen any of the sequels 🤫 I KNOW - I want to get caught up first) but it's ok, I don't mind spoilers.

Vince Whitacre