Red Post on Escher Street (2020) - Sion Sono

​An incredibly rich mosaic of modernity, one in which Sono's signature snark and perverse style is imbued with an infectious warmth and sense of optimism which is atypical for the prolific filmmaker. Any attempt to distill this labyrinthine narrative down to any pointed critique or central theme feels somewhat futile and yet the film never feels disjointed or erratic but rather focused on elucidating the complexities of life. We are all the stars of our own story, we all crave assurances from the external world, and in the synthesis of our individual desires and internal complexities, somehow, a communal sense of progress can be achieved - something can be created from nothing when we let go and simply accept our general insignificance. To call Red Post on Escher Street merely a delightful distillation of the filmic creative process isn't incorrect but it does feel a tad reductive, in that for Sono the cinema itself and its various agents that come together to create something truly special feels like a figurative statement about life itself. Societal structures of authority, in this case, driven by capital investment, disrupt and divide, they lie to us about their necessity under the deception of coercive order - yet there is another path. Not only one of Sono's most warm and optimistic efforts but one in which the filmmaker showcases an impressive control of narrative filmmaking in which the strictures and confinements of its formalism feel in a perpetual state of evolution. Extremely funny, emotionally poignant, and as distinctive as one would expect, Red Post on Escher Street is easily one of my favorite Sono films in recent years.