But now, Rian Johnson takes over the helm
of The Last Jedi, and what transpires is a far more
mature piece of cinema, far more concerned with the narrative and the characters that inhabit it; and the
film benefits greatly as a result.
Had its trippy - dippy, anachronistic cross-cutting and madly - inappropriate scoring appeared in 1968 (the year
of Rosemary's Baby, Night
of the Living Dead, If..., 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the
film to which it perhaps owes its greatest allegiance, Once Upon a Time in the West), Performance would've found traction and good company as a foundational
film for the American New Wave instead
of as a picture that, for all its foment and formal revolution, seemed hysterical against a
maturing, more sedate (d) mainstream avant - garde parade
of stuff like El Topo, Zabriskie Point, MASH, and Five Easy
Pieces.