A film about taxes and dreams, and then a love that seems to transcend the latter (or take place within the latter), Strawberry Mansion is also about taxing dreams, and some potential conspiracy about advertising in dreams. There are lots of dreams. It is unsurprisingly dreamlike and there's something undeniably impactful about it, but I feel like I got lost in both good ways and bad.
Still, more good than bad. I mostly liked this a lot. It's creatively fantastical for something that doesn't look big budget, and I like how so much stuff that sounds goofy on paper was presented with sincerity. It commits to a deeply strange logic and always feels consistent to itself, though I wished I was able to keep up entirely. Some parts are quite moving in ways that are hard to describe.
The experience it provides makes it more than worth digging out. I also thought the music was incredible, and it was cool to learn Dan Deacon was behind it (have heard at least one of his albums before).
At the end of the day, I feel like there's a lot that could be said about Strawberry Mansion; maybe even too much. But I can't say much at the moment. Whether seeing it again or reading up on it will unlock more of its secrets remains to be seen. For all I know, maybe everyone else is similarly lost (again, this is mostly a good thing; feels generally intentional, if just the tiniest bit frustrating).
Oh, it was also funny how much one of the supporting actors in this looked like Nick Offerman.
Strawberry Mansion
2021
Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Fantasy / Romance / Sci-Fi
Strawberry Mansion
2021
Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Fantasy / Romance / Sci-Fi
Plot summary
In the not-too-distant future, an all-seeing surveillance state conducts “dream audits” to collect taxes on the unconscious lives of the populace. Mild-mannered government agent James Preble travels to a remote farmhouse to audit the dreams of Arabella “Bella” Isadora, an eccentric, aging artist. Entering Bella’s vast VHS archive, which contains a lifetime of dreams, Preble stumbles upon a secret that offers him a chance at love—and hope for escape.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
June 30, 2022 at 05:35 PM
Director
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Nick Offerman was great in this.
I think the auteur's next film will be a 10 and I look forward to watching it
5/10 feels so brutal for this playful offering but, just like Audley's IMDb profile picture, I'm struggling to find the character amongst the style. Like, I can't even locate a Sartrean character whose ideal is to negate reification of character.
Mostly, I think there was a problem with the pacing that prevented me from engaging. Also, some of the writing felt a bit naive, in the kind of way that it is ambiguous enough to be taken as irony, which I feel is a bit of a cop out, sometimes. Writers in this kind of genre should reach out to philosophers and literary professors... but, whatever, where's my movie aye.
just a little bit too slow for my tastes
The idea is interesting. With a better director, could be a good movie, but it is just too slow. It just drags
One scene, for example, should be full of tension, a race between life and death for the protagonist, with his real life world presenting a clear and present danger, but we spend such a long time in the dream world, with people exchanging looks. If it had been just that little bit tighter, the concept would have been exquisite, with our own plot driven stress overlaying the dream sequence and bringing an urgency to it that contrasted with the sequence's laziness.
But that's not what happened. I got so bored I lost interest. Nearly twenty minutes before the narration kicks in and describes the centuries spent in the dream space. Well, at least I didn't have to watch it.
Maybe more a judgement of my own lack of focus? Perhaps, but maybe a tighter cut would have be transformative.