Wachowskis are amazing. Their first movie, Bound, was in Venice in 1996, and we are still figuring out why. A mediocre lesbo noir with two bad actresses and a cheap villain. Then came the Matrix, one was enough, but they wanted three and one with Monica Bellucci.
Jupiter Ascending is a sci-fi love story according to Frank Herbert and Naomi Klein. In the middle, there’s been good stuff. V is a Wachowski Movie. Speed Racer is not cinema but lysergic visual art and by far their best movie. Cloud Atlas, a crazy philosophical short story about the human race with Tom Hanks and Hugh Grant wearing ridiculous make-up.
It was a big challenge. They lost, but they gambled at least.
Jupiter Ascending is a big patchwork, just like The Matrix was, with the same social and politically controversial issues that are very present in most of their movies. So, instead of talking of a silly story of a beautiful Russian toilette cleaner who became the Princess of the Universe (and I’m not listening to the Queen, by the way) and has a bodyguard who’s a former male stripper with dog ears, maybe is more interesting trying to understand something else.
The Wachowski would have been put on the blacklist during the 50s because they are among the few socialist artists in the movie industry. Matrix was the story of a revolution, V is one of the most subversive tales of the last forty years (Alan Moore, ladies and gentlemen) and Speed Racer was the hard fight of a family business against evil and powerful corporations.
Only one thing cares for the Wachowski Bros, and it’s the pursuit of happiness for humankind. They are looking for a new world order in which culture, freedom, and relationships are the actual richness. They are trying to subvert capitalism from the inside, working for one the biggest news and entertainment corporations on the planet, wasting a significant amount of their money with movies that bomb and also say how beautiful it is to be a communist.
Standing ovation for the Wachowski Bros, they are the Real McCoy of left culture. Who cares if their movies suck. They will save the world. One day.