608: A Centaur, Only for Cars

Fire up your Bernoulli Conversionator and check your trunk for stowaways, because we’re entering the Wachowski sisters’ candy-colored 2008 road rally through the Uncanny Valley, “Speed Racer.” It’s an eye-searing acid trip of a movie, with groundbreaking storytelling, an earnest heart, and a curious void at its center. (There is also a chimp.) We’ll discuss how this film fits into the Wachowskis’ canon, the supporting character whose story is way more interesting than the lead‚ and the only other big-budget film since that has dared to get this stylistically weird.

Nathan Alderman with Lisa Schmeiser and Shelly Brisbin.