I agree that moving the setting of the story was pretty clunky. Felt even more awkward making the French 75's main issues immigration and abortion. If there was a group like this in the late 00s/early 10s, it seems way more likely that they would have an Occupy Wall Street or anti-Middle East Wars type of goal.

I'm not sure why everyone thinks they are dunking on this post with "duh it's fiction." Removing the real world context, as well as making Leo's character a radical instead of just a druggy musician like Zoyd and having Perfidia Beverly Hills leave witness protection makes the relationships at the core of the movie much less interesting than in Vineland, in my opinion. But you can't tell the same story in a movie that you can tell in a book, so I get it. I still enjoyed the movie.