This week's Hyde Park Pick: The Matrix

I was 10 years old when The Matrix was first released. So, like many, my first experience of the film wasn’t at the pictures but when I watched a rather ropey VHS copy a year or so later – probably when I was a little too young…

Everything about the film mesmerised me. The extraordinary action sequences, the bewildering plot, the sexy outfits, the insanely cool fight scenes – I was in awe. And every time I replayed that poor VHS tape and subsequent DVD, I found myself connecting with the film in new and more meaningful ways. Whether it was the film’s pseudo-philosophical commentary speaking to me as a teenager, the film's groundbreaking camerawork exciting me as film student, or the film’s queer tendencies becoming increasingly apparent – my love for The Matrix, and the Wachowskis, has grown as I've grown.

It wasn’t until I was 22, on holiday in Berlin, that I experienced the film in the cinema for the first time. Seeing The Matrix presented on 35mm, in all its green-tinted glory, accompanied by Don Davis’ pulsating brass-fuelled score, was one of my fondest ever cinema memories. It’s cool how a film that you know so well can still have the power to thrill and amaze, when seen in the way it was always meant to be seen. It was a reminder that until that point, despite countless viewings, I’d not yet fully realised the film’s potential. 

And now today, 25 years on, The Matrix continues to surprise. For a film that tested the limits of what was possible in terms of special effects – it’s remarkable how well it has aged and how good it now looks, especially compared with other films of that boundary-pushing era. And with every year that passes, the film’s late-90s aesthetic, its gorgeous choreography, and progressive politics, seem to make it both cooler and more impressive. The journey the Wachowski sisters have been on since the film's release, and attempts by Lana Wachowski in particular to reclaim the legacy of The Matrix via the latest instalment in the franchise, The Matrix Resurrections (which I loved), allow us to re-visit the film through a renewed lens – with themes of identity, gender and transition revealing themselves in new and interesting ways.

It’s a film that shouldn’t have been possible, made by two unconventional Hollywood outsiders, who somehow pulled off one of the most original films of the last quarter-century, and went on to influence a whole generation of filmmakers and fans alike. But don’t take my word for it – that’s just my experience of the film. I’m sure you’ll have your own personal relationship to, and understanding of, The Matrix. After all, in the words of the big man himself, “No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.”

The Matrix screens at the Hyde Park Picture House on Sat 06 and Wed 10 July. More info and tickets here.