Masterpiece.

My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops? (Book).

It is unlike any movie or story I've ever seen. I don't think everyone will like it, but I think you will find that it is an artistic expression more than a traditional movie. Also, there's this beautiful, haunting piano piece...For me the movie was worth it, and even better and more relaxed upon second viewing, for my friend it was not. Many will say, like Inception -- but on steroids --, that the movie is hard to follow, which is why Ebert suggests and watched it twice. I think the third time would be the most enjoyable.

It is six simple stories, interwoven, stopping and starting, failing and succeeding, loving and losing, breaking and mending; it has some of the best acting, in my opinion, of any movie released this year.

Ebert is profound when he says: Any explanation of a work of art must be found in it, not taken to it. He says:

"To borrow Churchill's description of Russia, "it is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." It fascinates in the moment. It's getting from one moment to the next that is tricky.

Surely this is one of the most ambitious films ever made. The little world of film criticism has been alive with interpretations of it, which propose to explain something that lies outside explanation. Any explanation of a work of art must be found in it, not taken to it. As a film teacher, I was always being told by students that a film by David Lynch, say, or Warner Herzog, was "a retelling of the life of Christ, say, or 'Moby Dick.' " My standard reply was: Maybe it's simply the telling of itself."

I want to see it. Not as much as The Man with the Iron Fist, but still....

That movie looks gold as well.

Thanks for the review -- will watch it soon too.

Looking forward to hearing what you think! I think it'll make it to watch movies with a "lesser" calling for the next few weeks.

Saw Cloud Atlas. Mind blown.

I'm gonna be thinking about this movie for a LONG time.

Favorite quote: "Our lives are not our own."

See also: http://pandawhale.com/convo/8174/roger-ebert-cloud-atlas

Thanks for the details. So it sounds like a combination of Kurowawa's Dreams and Tampopo's technique for intertwining various vignettes around a theme into a movie.

As to explanations, Goedel proved that for any consistent system, it can be proven there are truths outside of it, right?

I'm looking forward even more to seeing it.

Absolutely.