View attachment 33017
Utter garbage. A simple message is presented to adults as if they are 6-year-olds. Stupid. A yawn fest. Dumb. 3/10
Thank you for your service.
Counterpoint: I LOVED this film but it turns out my analysis was pretty far from what the creators intended.
I had heard tons of hype, and, knowing that nothing ever really lives up to the hype I decided to go in blind. Avoided anything online and made sure my wife was up for watching it within the next couple of days. So I knew literally nothing, no trailer, no reviews, didn't even know it was by the same guys who did Swiss Army Man until after I'd seen it.
I have since read interviews and reviews and articles which have indicated that the themes are immigrant realities (jumping from one life to the other and back again) as well as social media saturation (constant flickering of various social identities) which all makes perfect sense.
My initial analysis prior to reading the official notes was frankly much better and I'm sticking to it.
Here it is, spoilers ahead.
EEAaO is the story of saving a loved one from depression.
The Donut is Joy's looming suicide.
The multiverse as allegory for nihilism works great. If an infinite number of universes exist in which all things are happening simultaneously then clearly existence is meaningless.
This brings us to the paradox of Nihilism and the realisation of Existentialism: if nothing has meaning or even exists then within that is a wonderful and truly magnificent amount of freedom! You are free to do whatever you want to do, meaning is
yours to create, it is't prescribed by Sky Daddy or a deterministic universe of any kind. It is yours, ours, it belongs to everyone! Go out and do creative things with people you love!
I'd like to reference another film that explores some of these topics 'Waking Life', an excellent watch. It contains a series of vignettes that are moderately dialogue/monologue heavy, here is the one want to refer to:
...so if meaning is ours to create within a chaotic universe where existence is meaningless there are some pitfalls to avoid, a donut if you will, and this is it:
You will lose your mid trying to control things that cannot be controlled.
You will lose your mind of you refuse to create your own meaning.
You will lose your mind if you are not willing to be nothing, clinging to a self will destroy you.
The message then is one of release, of learning to love with open hands, and ultimately of avoiding annihilation by surrendering yourself to it.
8/10