On the one hand, you could say that it's the ultimate bourgeois ideology film: radicals who have been on the run for the better part of two decades realize their folly, let their talented son assimilate to the system's institutions, live with his wealthy gradfather, and assume the bourgeois life of comfort and success his parents foolishly rejected for a pointless violent act they regret. That this is mashed into a coming-of-age tale makes the transition from political rebellion to…

Video games, a cultural form literally born out of RAND projects to survive a nuclear war with the Soviets (so in a sense, plausibly anti-communist), are a perfect neoliberal technology. Every video game operates the same way: computer-generated overlays provide a narrative-symbolic "skin" to a set of algorithms in a way to make the "players'" collapse of the visual and haptic registers of adaptation to the algorithm -- the pressing of a combination of buttons in the appropriate rhythm --…

In real life these people would have had dogs. Lazy incompetent cop whose wife won't fuck him? Big dog. Handsome and slightly slimy single dad politician? He's gonna have a dog. Insane conspiracy boomer living with resentful kids? At least two shitty little dogs. Aster clearly doesn't understand small town American losers, because all of these people would have dogs, lots of 'em.

But first the good stuff. You really do Have to Hand It to Aster for going full…