As pretty much every review has noted, Jean-Luc Godard’s latest film essay ends with a title card that says “No Comment”—a convenient/appropriate authorial absence that leaves the whole sprawl open to interpretation, with the audience completing the film in their mind (if they want to). Thus, Godard’s fans can see it as another rich entry into a rich body of work, while his detractors can see it as a final “fuck you” to an indifferent public. I’d be lying if I said I understood more than half of it, which I can safely assume is the point. But what it is, most clearly, is an overview of the state of Europe circa 2010, which Godard visualizes as a flashy luxury cruise sailing in a circle while wandering philosophers (and a few disembodied voices) talk about Europe’s history, the corruption of its institutions, and the stagnation of its ideals. As for where we go from here, that’s answered (?) in a curious middle segment that shows a younger generation trying to pick up the mantle of art, philosophy, and revolutionary principles. New viewers to Godard are often turned off (or turned militant) by the displays of unapologetic intellectualism. But now that I’ve seen enough of his work, I think his style is more shaded, absurdly comical, and even self-deprecatory. That is to say, I think this highly intellectual film very much allows the reading that intellect solves little. What carries it all, through even its most obtuse passages, is the visceral nature of its sounds and visuals. This is surely some kind of landmark in the progression of digital photography, full of saturated, textured, sterile images unlike anything else I’ve seen this year. I’d love to see a narrative filmmaker pick up Godard’s visual ideas and run with them (Soderbergh comes closest). Godard has always been an experimenter, less concerned with making a movie than with redefining how a movie can be made, and if he reliably leaves me with mixed feelings, I’m glad he’s still doing it in the 21st century.