J. P. Fields

Civil war is a film about the obsession for violence . Man’s undeniable hunger for flirting with death. The thrill . The intensity . The undeniable out of body rush one gets when violence and death are your environment . And maybe you are the unassuming haphazard spectator thrown in the midst . Or maybe you are in the frontlines frothing at the mouth . Whether it were the reporters documenting the carnage or the mindless soldiers fighting this empty war ; Civil War was exceptionally good at showing that many people long for the thrill of destruction. Some of us long to be soldiers and others just witnesses . This film , if it does anything right it shows the twos sides of the same desire . It shows a vignette of America that has meandered simultaneously Into a state of utter detachment and complete surrender to the specter of annihilation.

In a world saturated by endless streams of derivative art , Poor Things is a triumph. Sure it too can be labeled derivative but only as means for reimagining a world anew . This film is a dream told bluntly and beautifully. The imagery of the film serves as a surreal almost otherworldly backdrop for our insatiable main character that is Bella Bakster. Her journey to enlightenment happens so unfiltered and real one can only assume they are experiencing the story as a pure sense of one’s own subconscious . I hate to spoil a rare gem with criticism but I would say the only flaw of this story for me , is when the story begins to take flight you may feel you want the surreal nature of the film to go to deeper and more enchanting heights but it seems to plateau at some point. And then at its own well considered pace resolves our dear Miss Bakster’s evolution to a fitting and interesting end . Which is so much more than we can hope for these days , unfortunately.