Video Essay: "Anaphora: David Cronenbeg's COSMOPOLIS"

[@joed7185]

Just saw this film today. I feel the reason it got bad reviews was because it completely went over everyones head. I haven't read the book, but this film was pretty dense and requires the viewers attention. The message is very fitting for the current state the world is in. 8/10

[@DarkAngelEU]

I'd argue it was ahead of its time, like the book. When the movie came out, it wasn't really as obvious what it was talking about because Bezos, Musk, even Zuckerberg, weren't as prominent in the public sphere as they are today. This whole discussion of big corps wasn't really started yet, except for Occupy movements and the book might have predicted them if it weren't fiction. Looking back at it, this movie is very appropriate and I think because the has moved closer to its narrative, it's easier to understand for a wider audience.

[@GamesWithBrainz]

Honestly the biggest reasons i have for not liking it is some of the stilted weird dialogue and acting and the lack of any character development. I love robert pattinson but i feel like he was still in the monotone twilight acting phase

[@garljoens]

hell yeah bruddah

[@FirstmaninRome]

Don delilo is awesome. LIBRA IS A masterpiece. I need toread whitenoise as well. Haunting movie.

[@anaquaticowl269]

It seems to be a deliberate choice. The acting felt very Lynchian.

[@chadtindale2095]

I appreciate you attempting to decode Cosmopolis.

[@madimeyer2862]

I thought your essay was great but I'd like to touch on a few things I saw differently in a rather long-winded comment. The scene where Packer asks about his uneven prostate plays on two main themes of the film, the first being his obsession with charting the yuan, despite being told by multiple experts that it isn't possible to make sense of it. He bets against the yuan and is wrong, ruining his company and wiping out a large part of his fortune in one day. Packer tries to make sense of everything, which is displayed early on by not only his folly but by the questions he would ask his employees which they were hesitant to answer out of fear of losing his respect. His entire day consists of discussing a plethora of things with various people, philosophical and otherwise, where multiple characters even state that it is his job to know things. The second theme is Packer's fear and fascination with death, he sees a doctor every single day and death isn't something anyone can fully understand. The one thing before the ending that drew emotion out of Packer was the death of Brutha Fez. Packer seems almost confused and in disbelief by the idea that Brutha Fez is dead, I think it is here that Packer's curiosity evolves primarily into morbid curiosity. Another point I think that you misconstrued, was that he didn't have some sort of revelation that he was this villain, he was self-righteous until his implied final breaths. Packer's fascination with death and knowing lead him to Benno. Packer purposefully ignored the instructions of his security team, even killing the head of security and throwing the gun away. The same gun which Benno brandishes later on. I can agree that the wealth he attained allowed him luxuries in life that changed him, it numbed him. When he shot his hand, you can clearly see him considering the situation curiously, but not to punish himself. He is numb and curious to a fault, he simply wanted to see what would happen. Previously, he asked to be tazed by one of his security detail at the highest voltage, and again he killed the head of his security detail, all out of insatiable curiosity. His curiosity leads him throughout the film, and the entire time his obsession blatantly leads him down a path of self destruction. In the end, he is speaking calmly and detached, ego still intact. It seemed he almost didn't believe Benno would kill him, but he was curious. When Benno is shown to be incredibly mentally ill and unpredictable, Packer's fear sets in as he realizes he cannot make sense of the situation and it may truly result in a fatal consequence. In his final moment, he panics before finally sighing in relief, accepting the only sense he can make in that moment, which is the inevitably of death.

[@luvsscii7871]

Awesome extension on his review. This is the absolute best summation I've seen to-date

[@HardeepSingh-nu8er]

This is the comment that makes me truly understand the movie. Thanks, man!

[@caligulasloveboat5232]

This comment is a much better analysis than the video.

[@Kometheus]

Id like to believe he didn't die lol

[@garljoens]

I guess I see a synthesis of your two perspectives. His curiosity or more specifically, *need to know*, to map and chart the world, is finding itself leveraged towards self destruction at every turn. I think this is not merely coincidental, or rather, it’s balanced on the edge between coincidence and an unconscious suicide drive. A drive we can reasonably project through the entirety of capitalism: a vast project of categorization, mapping, charting and capitalization of all of reality, all ultimately driving towards a self consuming inferno, or an abyss. The cannibalistic ouroboros of “infinite growth”. Packer is a manifestation of this essence, the supreme agent of capitalism, its apotheosis. And that apotheosis is, unknowingly to itself, hellbent on its own destruction. I think Packer is curious towards death, as you say, but his curiosity is centered on destruction. I watch his indifference towards the unpredictability of the yuan and see a person so assured in his incontestable dominion that there is nowhere left to explore but the abyss.

[@luvsscii7871]

Really great analysis. Only critique is that Croningberg did not predict anything. Don Demillo did. The movie is nearly identical the book.

[@anonymouslyunknown4811]

One of my favorite films with Robert Pattinson

[@eyeseer1]

The movie debuted in the same year as around ‘Inception’ but ‘Cosmopolis’ was an extended metaphor of relativism in perception of delusion. Every line was linear to capitalism, progressivism, age, maturity and conceit. If ‘Inception’ was a simplification of a puzzle forming together, Cosmopolis was a Rubix Cube that had multiple angles before it could be fully realized.

[@glormoparch5154]

Good review. Missed the whole hand thing and haircut thing. I'm watching on KZbin in my virtual bubble. My hands love my phone. The future and the past are also a theme as he runs out of time.

[@frankiepips]

Do you know how dull it is trying to take the time out to understand what you are mumbling to yourself about???

[@joe_stallone]

Great video essay. 👍

[@sclogse1]

I'll be sending this out.

[@severalwolves]

It’s literally just a guy riding around in a car. These are all just, like, _your thoughts,_ maaan.

[@ststwetmalmsfert8515]

you criminally underestimate cronenberg maaan

[@ogaboga7451]

What???? in a review; a reviewer gives their thoughts???

[@Kometheus]

Incredibly great review

[@d4django]

Can you make a more elaborated version?

[@xandr13]

He clearly can't. Very superficial and weak review.

[@d4django]

@@xandr13 can you suggest another review of this movie?

[@whitealliance9540]

@@d4django better. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqC6nqOOhZyYd7s he is on earth now.

[@madimeyer2862]

@@d4django I would recommended just reading the book or listening to the audiobook, the message is much more clear in text.

[@luvsscii7871]

@@xandr13 Review was actually one of the best yet.

[@lawrenceyang9959]

I really need a video essay on Cosmos directed by Zulawski. Will you please make one?

[@disconnected22]

I relish the thought of a world of Twilight girls getting sucked into this glorious, coldly beautiful mindfuck.

[@JohnnyArtPavlou]

It’s Jared Kushner, RIP.

[@victormutunga2944]

Amazing movie

[@buhaymananato-tattoolife9093]

It is relevant today

[@DNSchank]

His problem since the beginning is that he can´t accept that he can´t understand everything. A reasonable man would know that it´s impossible to know everything. The yuan is just the excuse that sets it all on fire. All his doubts emerge, even the simplest ones. The stupid questions to his workers. Real doubts that they don´t want to answer because how could he not know. Don´t make me be reasonable he says various times. He hates it. Of course he does. A rabbit hole that leads him to his end were he finally understand at least one thing. He´s going to die.

[@GamesWithBrainz]

the prequel to the batman '22

[@kurono1822]

Even understanding the message, the film is boring as hell, and the way every character deliver their line takes me out of the film

[@leonardobabusci4494]

Sorry MUBI, I love you, but you won't make appreciate this piece of garbage. Cronenberg's cinematography itself talks about the same themes, and he does it way better than this one. One of the worst movie ever seen, great concept, terrible realization. Don DeLillo, are you really the same person that wrote that masterpiece of White Noise? Jeez.

[@kurtjjj7]

This movie was horrible. Yeah over my head but it doesn’t make sense