The Image Book (2018) review

Frenetic - one might argue somewhat schizoid - essay-film by JLG about, well, everything and anything: the cinema, war, travel (the man loves a good train), the rapid development of technology and in the last third, conflict in the Middle East.  It's so abstract and scattershot it might frustrate those unfamiliar with his hijinks/tactics, but at this point I can safely say literally no one else on Planet Earth could have made this: it's idiosyncratic, frustrating and deeply personal.  The catalog of movies he includes clips from is wild - they range from Young Mister Lincoln to Pasolini's Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom to Michael Bay's 13 Hours - and he's also referencing his own past work ("Christianity is the refusal to know oneself") since, after all, there is no "cinema" as we know it without him.  The last two words spoken (or rather coughed out) by him are "ardent hope," followed by silent footage of people dancing.  So we continue....