Mr. Right (2015) – 4th best Star Wars movie – Part II

Mr. Right (2015) is the best Star Wars movie since The Return of the Jedi. It has no spaceships or lightsabers, but it does have a deep dive into the Force, or the Flow, by a Force master dance-killing with Force reflex and teaching how to do it. It also seems to dunk especially on the Disney Star Wards movies, which is curious as it came out before any of them.

The Dark Side of the Flow

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to loss of composure, loss of composure in a fight leads to a bullet in the head. Living free of fear and obtaining self-control is what separates the heroes from the villains.

The opening mercenary squad went full alpha macho aggro dipshit rage to not face how close they were to pissing themselves. They feared, they raged, they disconnected from the flow of the world, fearless Rockwell had a skip through the tulips dance-killing them.

The whiny emo wannabee hair to the evil empire keeps trying to hold his fury at bay and fails repeatedly until shot. Tim Roth is afraid of his bosses, tried to trap Rockwell in a life of fear, fails. The plan of one of the final henchman was to kill Kendrick, throw Rockwell off his game, to put fear in him, and then kill him. “The little-death that brings total obliteration.” Screaming extra hard, going Super Saiyan, and growing stupid hair gets you killed. Fearlessness leads to calm, calm lead to control, control leads to power.

The henchman that eventually turns on the bad guys is much calmer and more collected, a professional who plans ahead. He has rational strategic thinking, does not rush in blind, and even has a moral code that puts him at a disadvantage during combat, he wouldn’t take a woman hostage. His calm connects him to the flow so much he keeps getting the upper hand on Rockwell because he moves with the flow. Rockwell can only predict attacks moving against the flow, leaving him blind to other flow-sensitives.

The Light Side vs Dark Side divide

Mr. Right provides the best answer for the divide between the Jedi and the Sith I’ve ever seen on film, handling fear. Good guys transcend fear to live in the flow of the world, bad guys submit to fear and become its agents. Green Lanterns are fearless, V for Vendetta “lives without fear”, Dune has the litany against fear. The Jedi are in the flow of the world by facing their fear, leaving only them, fearless, flowing. In Star Wars the Jedi try to reach a lack of fear by having nothing they fear losing, removing themselves from attachments to the physical world and relationships. Rockwell reaches fearless Zen by putting no limits on himself, going with the flow inside himself. He is always naturally happy, dance fighting, killing those who hire him because murder is wrong, getting into a relationship, giving henchmen a chance to run away, shooting to disable, not to kill.

He embraces his humanity in all its complexity, he is vulnerable, he has confidence issues, just a guy who happens to be a hitman. He goes with the flow from within.

Rockwell even spares another black henchman that acknowledges his fear of death, saying “I don’t want to die.” as he’s holding a live grenade. Rockwell helps him put the pin back in because he is not locked into a “kill the wabbit” mindset, he is free to change direction. This is how “the guardians of peace and justice” would act, unlike Rey that is all the Jedi but stabs Kylo after he stopped fighting during The Rise of Skywalker. Just try out the words, the hero saves a henchman that does not want to die. I miss movies where characters switch sides and the heroes are more than lawnmowers on a bed of bad guys grass. Badass is hot, but vulnerability and personality are what you want to cuddle with.