Following the wild success of the Matrix trilogy Wachowski sisters Lana and Lilly were handed what is known in Hollywood as a “blank check,” giving them an opportunity to make whatever crazy passion project they want. Sometimes those checks clear, but the Wachowskis big sweeping brightly-colored cartoonish future race car film based on the Japanese animated series “Mach Go Go Go” with an anti-capitalist message was a big fat bounce with critics and audiences alike when it hit screens in 2008. Allegedly the resulting “Speed Racer” cost Warner Brothers a massive $200 million and only managed to clear $93 million at the box office. It was met with vicious vitriol in its time, and some still deride it today, but they’re wrong.
With the benefit of hindsight, or perhaps nostalgia for a time before the current homogenized and hideous grey CGI landscape of big Hollywood productions, cinephiles are realizing just how incredible this movie really was. In fact, it might be the most important movie of the 21st century. There is no other movie in history like “Speed Racer,” and there never will be another like it. “Speed Racer” was created to look something like an eye-searing fever dream of colors and visual collages of wipes and dissolves, wild motion and background action. It’s live action mixed with bold CGI to create a look that feels much more like the cartoon it’s based on. The insane shots are part of the joy, and everything is in glorious focus.
Bold and dramatic storytelling
Even if you don’t like “Speed Racer,” you have to admit that it’s entirely different from anything you’ve ever seen. It’s an incredibly faithful adaptation of the original cartoon, creatively capturing the tone and style of the original. If you haven’t seen the “Speed Racer” cartoon in a while, go watch a couple episodes and then re-watch the Wachowski film, you’ll instantly see where they were coming from. Instead of making something dull, boring, bleak, pessimistic, or derivative, the most creative filmmakers of a generation set out to pave new ground. “Speed Racer” is a love letter to the world, to the craft of making art, and to bold, dramatic storytelling. I love it to death.
If you’re a film buff and you aren’t already following the Patrick (H) Willems film essay channel, you really need to be. This is an incredible one-hour epic about one of the most visually incredible films of all time, and you owe it to yourself to give it a watch. I’ve written about many of his videos in the past, and even the ones that aren’t transportation-related are great.
