This movie blew my mind when I saw it (a couple of years after it came out), as I think it did for most people. A friend brought it to a party - we watched this and Canadian sci-fi/horror classic, Cube - and also introduced me to DVDs. I wanted to get a DVD player because of The Matrix because as my friend had impressed upon me, it is not enough to watch this on [wrinkled nose for emphasis] VHS. I had always loved movies, but that was the moment I became a movie snob.
I haven't watched it in years because, honestly, the hype and the sequels soured me on the franchise a little. The Matrix is, as Ben will tell you, already 10 seconds longer than it ought to be. I felt like the sequels were backfilling plot that I honestly didn't care about. I kind of liked Resurrections (the most recent endeavor), if only because it felt like an interesting artistic experiment of returning to the scene of the crime. It revisited the franchise in a way that poked fun at all of the subcultures that co-opted the creators' intention. But I also bristle at that idea a little because art never fully belongs to the creator once it's been observed.
And now, 25 years later(!!!!), it's so funny to me that we didn't all see it immediately as an allegory about personal identity (specifically transgender identities - but I was (like most folks) incredibly ignorant on the subject). There are some notions about the internet that feel quaint now but having any kind of world opened up to you and the horrors of any system that benefits you staying ignorant, ring truer now than ever.
Golly I wish I would have written this immediately after watching the movie rather than weeks later. Ah well.
I appreciate that we experience the world through the lens of Neo because obviously that's how you tell this story. But I was shocked this time around by how much it felt like Trinity's story. The stories she has had to buy into wholesale. The curious dilemma of being told you will fall in love with The One. The strength she shows. The commitment. Her steadfastness. She's a fascinating character and good lord I wish she was better served in the sequels.
Joey Pants (Joe Pantoliano) makes such a terrific and almost sympathetic villain. Of course he wants to go back to ignorance because he was better served by the lie. The payoff of finding The One is too far away and requires too much faith for someone who wasn't trod upon in the old world. Of course, I have no patience for those who long for the taste of steak over equity for their fellow humans as I stare down the barrel of this election.
No such luck, though, as I bite my nails and watch the polls. But at least we have art.
Block print. Ink on paper.
Takeaways:
-Well spit. I haven't done much art at all lately but I haven't done a block print since Waiting for Guffman. I don't want to look and see how long ago that was. But it has been a minute. Part of it was that I started following a whole bunch of block printing artists on instagram and that just killed my confidence. Inspired me, absolutely, but those bursts of inspiration are always quickly followed by despair. Particularly with lino work. I love it, but I always feel like I'm fundamentally missing something. Like I just don't get it in my approach. Like there's some secret I need to be told to unlock my understanding of it. And then the last thing I want to do is attempt one. Blech.
-Is this the most creative idea I've ever had? Absolutely not. I almost walked away from it when I googled "spoon in binary" (because wouldn't that be so clever if the binary in the spoon silhouette spelled out "spoon" eyeroll) and found a ton of things on Etsy that are "LOOK! SPOON! CODE!" But you know what? I did it. I did it and it's done. I used my big book of copyright free images and used that instead of beating my head against a wall because I can't draw a fork because I also haven't really drawn in months because I suck at it and can only get better by practicing but I don't want to practice because I'm not good at it! FUN!
-I also opted for a type of lino I abandoned after the first time I used it (waaaaaaaay back for Predator). It's hard to cut but it holds detail better and frankly, more to the point, as I tried to eliminated friction in getting this done, the piece I had at home was already cut to the size I wanted and mounted on a block. Sooooo...that's what I used. But it resulted in more chatter (the extraneous blotches caused by uneven cutting) than I would have liked. Ah well. It did hold the detail in the cutlery handles which I appreciate.
-IT'S DONE!
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