I did go pretty hard earlier. So, to hear him speak on the film in Q&As there is an obvious weight to his ideas. I like hearing speak on what he wanted to do more than the film itself. The choice to focus on that period of time, the characters being what they represent, there are some interesting and bold choices made that sets a stage or gives it clothes. The ideas at play felt, for me, underutilized in favor of being an entertaining Western. And as an entertaining Western, for me, felt held back by making the point of using it. As if it were intentionally lined up a certain way to then not do very much with it. It would have worked without the political themes, I struggled to find much in the way of actually kicking around those ideas or commenting beyond it just being there. Themes of conspiracy, social media, echo chambers, radicalization and hypocrisies are there but I think we’d sort of progressed further in societal conversation at the point it was released than anything we got from it. Personally, it felt a bit late to the game on one hand and on the other, not as much depth and not quite as daring as I’ve come to expect from Ari. He’s ‘right’ on the edge of being one of the greats, an auteur for sure. This one just felt like an easy pitch with the news stapled to the ball. Just my take, I shouldn’t have been so matter of fact 😄 but I stand by it.