The film’s politics are very progressive/liberal so I can imagine that deterring some viewers but PTA adds a lot of nuance and subversion throughout that make it more of an examination of radicalism than a straight trumpeting of it. As mentioned in another comment the radical characters often disagree and are shown taking very different strategies that then produce very different outcomes.
For those of you who are on the fence wrt watching this movie, the politics and the revolutionaries simply form the backdrop for the story. The movie is ultimately a chase-thriller and the cinematic pleasure on screen is just incredible. If you are a fan of superbly shot and staged set-pieces, this movie is for you.
Critic reviews mean nothing, because they form a clique which moves simultaneously.
But if you want to throw the old "there's some good ones", go ahead.
I think the character traits were what they were because the story doesn't work otherwise. I don't think it was PTA's express intention to showcase negative black stereotypes.
* Leonardo DiCaprio plays a character named Bob, and
* Shayna McHayle plays a character named Junglepussy
~ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30144839/fullcredits/
It'd be a poor review that glossed over a films choice and representations of characters, this one's on the director and writer, not the reviewer.
Regardless, I think it’s a fair observation that French 75 is cartoonish at times. This is not a movie about how great revolutionaries are, although it is a movie about how necessary they are. PTA also certainly makes some odd choices around minority characters.
Mind you it's her stage name, but she typically isn't robbing a bank on stage (her most iconic song is about healthy food at Trader Joes.)
PTA wasn't forced to use the name, but it wreaks of PTA loving the chance to use it while having cover from obvious it is (as you demonstrated)
