Absolute chaos. Huge achievement, looked great, can't deny it.

Here's a theme. This is not to say that this movie conveyed it very effectively, but there were shreds of it, if you'd like to read into it, by all means go ahead. This movie is the juxtaposition between the graceful legacy talent of Old Hollywood artists (depicted by Gwyneth Paltrow) versus the new era of chaotic grindset entertainers of the modern era (of course depicted by Timothee). The 1950s are a fascinating backdrop for this because it correctly sets the distinction between the Old Hollywood values of stiff formality, and the burgeoning, disjointed talents of New Hollywood to arise, that then eventually become normalized in our present domain of influencer culture. Marty would’ve been something close to what we know today as an influencer / real estate / tech / crypto grinder, minimally committed but full of loose ideas, relentlessly energetic, and will take what they can to get ahead, at whatever cost. But at the end of the day you reap what you sow, your impression of success is recalibrated to the quality of your input, the corporate activation event is the only place where you will win, that’s as far as you will get by your own design. You fool, go raise a kid and do something with purpose. Gen-z won’t recognize this however, because they’ll have been caught up in the lights and sounds, and see Marty’s anti-catharsis as merely a relief.

I get caught up wondering, is the chaos the point? Is the point that we are meant to embark on this journey with the understanding this is not sustainable, or that this is the state of mind of our generation? Maybe. This may come down to viewer palatability, maybe my aesthetic resilience is lower than the kids with 12 hour screen times. Either way, this exhausted me a little, not in a good way though, in a way that made me feel like I looked at a screen for too long.