Diamondland lies just beyond reasonable decisions. Here, the word “fun” has not yet been banned. Here, art is still allowed to be sexy and unreliable.
A bartender in a cowboy hat with an unknown past serves homemade drinks. A crooner sings his million-dollar hits to an audience that does not hear. A full-time lover suddenly finds himself in trouble. Chemtrails draw their lines across the sky like a bad idea you can no longer back out of.
Diamondland is a fantasy. Sex, conspiracies, and paranoia are not features, but infrastructure. "Welcome to Diamondland" is fundamentally cinematic. "A Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" without a budget, or a late, forgotten appearance at the Roadhouse where something feels wrong even before the first note.