I wanna rub the tummy of Mina from Deadlock. Looks very pinchable and squeezable.

Like always, Wes Anderson’s movies are very aesthetic, that is visually pleasing to the eye, not like your standard Hollywood ’80s or two-thousand American suburb look, like the horrible movie Weapons (2025) I just recently saw, which takes place entirely in an American suburb. Besides that, the characters and story are interesting and I do appreciate the surrealism aspects. The comedy also lands for me. If I have one criticism, although it is always interesting and nice to look at, it doesn’t really grip you. 7/10.

To the theme: I think the major theme is the battle of Virtue vs. Vice, which are respectively represented by the businessman Zsa-Zsa Korda and his daughter, a nun. Throughout the movie their arcs move in opposite directions. While businessman Zsa-Zsa Korda is multiple times confronted with near-death experiences and the faith of his daughter, and moves more toward virtue, the daughter-nun turns away from the solitary nun’s faith through confronting being-in-the-world. We can see her fall into vice through first her acceptance of gifts from her father, such as the rosary made of diamonds, a dagger, and a pipe decorated with diamonds (vice: greed), her consumption of first beer then cocktails and, in the end, whiskey (vice: indulgence), killing a pilot with a hand grenade (thou shalt not kill), and, in her love interest with the spy, reading pornographic books (vice: lust). This battle is not only fought in the actions of the businessman throughout the film, but also in his flashbacks/dreams where he sees himself being judged before a divine court, with his defender being the adversary (i.e., Satan). Each divine court scene represents a different vice/virtue: the first trial is about his greed for money, represented by the deer full of money that he offered as a sacrifice in the court; the second is about his lust for women, represented by his daughter accusing him; and the third concerns the virtue of hope, the belief in a better tomorrow, the belief in Jesus Christ and God.

Quick thought: with his brother trying to kill him, do we have an Cain/Able story?

Another interesting interpretation, beside the biblical one, is the Stoic one: if one wants to become a virtuous man one should surround oneself with virtuous men; if one surrounds oneself with viceful men one will become viceful.

“Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach. … What you see others do, you will long to do yourself. Even if you succeed in resisting it, the impulse lingers in the mind. We must withdraw into ourselves, for association with people of a lower sort can drag us down to their level.”

~ Seneca, On Crowds

Some of my favorite quotes from the movie:

Businessman sits in helicopter with freedom fighter:

Leader of Freedom fighter: “Religion is a sign of the oppressed creature. It’s a protest against suffering.”

Nun: “I agree. You are not an atheist?”

Leader of Freedom fighter: “Of course I am. Some of my colleagues, however, only claim to be.”

(Camera pans over to the freedom fighter praying in front of a Catholic shrine.)

He asks the Catholic priest to cover some of his debt.

Priest: “His holiness refuses to cover any of it.”

Zsa-Zsa Korda: “I know Felix. He is stubborn. We’ll need to sweeten the pot. Tell him I offer nine more souls.”

(Camera pans over to his nine adopted sons praying.)

But the greatest quote is, and always will be, just before he gets attacked by an assassin he has employed dozens of times:

Zsa-Zsa Korda: “I recognize this assassin — I employed him once.”

And

Zsa-Zsa Korda: “Help yourself to a hand grenade.”

Uncle Nurbar: “You are very kind, but I have my own.”

(He pulls out a hand grenade from his pocket and throws it up one time while spinning like a tennis ball before catching it again.)

Very colorful, I like it. Also love when 2D animation is used in a film. 7/10.

I love that the second Nobody begins exactly like the first one. The fighting scenes and the music are just as delicious as in the last. Who thinks of using a waterslide in the middle of a gunfight, or hiding landmines in a ball pool? But I digress, the start is slower than the first. The original felt more compressed, more condensed, and took itself less seriously. Overall, I would say the second is a bit worse than the first. 6/10.