Like Modern Times
(https://boxd.it/25MC) with 90% less slapstick and 20% more symbolism.
I've never seen so many background actors allowed to act! More of a satirical tableau than a movie with a plot, or rather two tableaus. I enjoyed the second in the nightclub in particular, but it contrasted with the dystopia of the daytime without really explaining why.
Took a third to get going (or for me to get into it) but from then its packed with iconic tunes.
The second act.
Where the first film set up the scenario and the characters, this focuses on the protagonist, his choices and their consequences. And that's difficult to represent because Paul is The One, and is largely driven by visions we can only glimpse. Even if, by the end, he feels he's seen all possibilities and is being analytical, we have to take that on faith. At least when Doctor Strange and Gandalf made similarly opaque world-defining decisions, we felt…
