What an absolutely delightful movie
It takes a long time to develop a movie, and PTA has reportedly been working on it for years. So the timing being so exquisite is pretty impressive. The acting is spot on, the script is terrific, and the filmmaking is beautiful. It’s a classic. I wasn't thinking of anything else but this movie when I was watching. It’s the best movie of the year by a lot. It’s probably my second-favorite PTA movie. It places him in a tier of directors who are mostly dead or at least Boomers. Chase Infiniti is a revelation, but so is Leo. This is cinema.
A weird thing happened to me in this movie. I thought, “This must have been what it was like to watch Spielberg in theaters in the 1970s and early 1980s.” Mikey 17 isn’t perfect, but it is big, and it is the kind of movie that feels even bigger when you are sitting next to people. Reminds me of Mars Attacked a bit too.
Boon Jong Ho has made enough movies that we are trying to see the pattern, but…