🎬 “What is the Matrix?”

You can support this newsletter with a one-time $3 donation at Buy Me a Coffee.

Big thank you to David for buying three coffees last week. He says: “I’m usually slammed with work on Fridays, but this newsletter lets me procrastinate and write way-too long responses to you.” I can confirm that David is the closest thing I have to a reply guy, but his responses are not too long! I love reading every reply I get to these emails.

🐈 The Matrix

🐈 The Matrix

The Matrix should be any screenwriter’s bible for effective world-building.

In just over two hours, it sets up an insanely convoluted techno-fantasy world (or is it?), and pays off everything in the most entertaining fashion. Today, it seems the movie’s legacies are black leather coats, “bullet time,” and validating Keanu Reeves as a bona fide action star — which is plenty more than most movies get.

However, I absolutely love the fact that this movie is about more than action, even though the final act is driven more by guns than philosophy. That, for me, is what has ensured its cultural relevance over the past 21 years, and not the…