Speaking in the abstract, as an Agnostic, movies are my scripture and the theater is my Church. When I see a really good one, it's the closest I get to having a religious experience; I can ignore shitty A/C, rowdy kids, and dawdling old people walking around because I'm in another world. FURIOSA was that cinematic oasis. I sat through the credits then sauntered down the stairs in an actual daze, wanting to turn right back around and watch it again. Credits are never long enough for me to process my feelings and wax nostalgic about the past 2+ hours or so. Not to mention, like, I hate making the AMC employees feel like they can't come sweep up popcorn and candy because I'm sitting there sobbing.
Narratively and temperamentally FURIOSA is more in line with George Miller's 3000 Years Of Longing than Fury Road - though it shares plenty of genetics with the latter. I love Fury Road as a propulsive road movie but I didn't want the same thing again. Wisely, George Miller doesn't hold a lightning rod in the same scorched crater, he conjures a new storm from up on high in the Australian dunes. It's almost a shiny-and-chrome Trojan Horse situation; come for the cool action choreography and stunt work, stay for the mythmaking, disciplined pacing and a sharp tire-burning swerve on the final lap. The action is as thrilling as ever but it's much more character-driven than plotty.
Right off top George Miller differentiates from Fury Road by taking his time with everything. There are more than a few extended takes as he lets every scene...breathe...and even exhale...before letting the battle cries ring out. Even the overall structure is mostly set-up as Miller carefully places every piece on the board for nearly 2 hours. And after all the build-up he takes us all for fools by the time he brings it all to a close. And he's right.
The climax, alone, was so unexpectedly cathartic and admonishing in ways that really knocked me out. I, quite literally, could not believe what I was seeing. He takes one of the most well-worn tropes of a vengeance plot and forces us to truly reckon with it, rather than committing a cliche copout. It's challenging and bold and I'm forever impressed by it.
Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy are both fantastic but Hemsworth, particularly, gives probably the best work of his career as Dementus is a single showcase of his range. He's as funny and despicable as he is scary and pitiable. The ending works as well as it does because he brings so much to it. His pained, trembling intensity when he delivers "To feel alive we seek sensation, any sensation to drown out the cranky black sorrow" stung my heart all three times I got to hear it in Dolby.
It still hits at home but nothing like it did in the theater. Some movies in this era never have a life on physical media, they're confined to the wasteland of streaming while others never even have a life in Theaters, for that matter. So I don't think it would be unreasonable for some movies to just stay in theaters indefinitely. In a perfect world, Furiosa is still playing.
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