Is it just me? Is everyone else in on the joke? Am I the only one who has no idea what the punch line is and when it's our cue to laugh? Has everyone but me been issued the secret decoder ring that makes sense of all this? Am I too sensitive? Too Catholic? Too old? Too grounded in objective reality? Or is it drugs? Some audience members, in a movie theater, receive 3-D glasses. Do some viewers receive a magic mushroom concoction that renders schlock beatific?
That's what I
was thinking as I sat in my local multiplex showing the new film One Battle
after Another. Critics tout it as a "masterpiece." Rotten
Tomatoes reports that One Battle
after Another has a 96% positive score. The National Public Radio program, Pop
Culture Happy Hour, called One Battle
after Another "awe-inspiring," "eye-poppingly
beautiful," "really, really fun," "a masterclass,"
"firing on all cylinders," full of "painterly
compositions." The crew at the Next Best Picture podcast devoted
four hours – four hours! – to slathering praise on the film. To these young
guys, One Battle after Another is one of the greatest films ever made. In
the New York Times, Michelle Goldberg crowns One Battle after Another
an "anti-fascist film."
Is it just me?
