**** A few spoilers, so proceed with caution ****
I want to preface this "review" by saying that I LOVE the Zellner's previous film, "Kumiko the Treasure Hunter". I believe it's a masterpiece, and one of my favorite movies of all time. I've also seen many of their short films, so I know what their sense of humor is like. Needless to say, I probably had unrealistically high expectations for this movie.
Sadly, it was a disappointment. I can't say that I wasn't engaged all the way through, or that it didn't hold my attention (which for many will be a challenge since is VERY deliberately paced), but it just wasn't what I was expecting.
To begin with, the marketing and all of the press that I've watched is misleading. This is not a comedy. It is very much a drama with comedic elements. The humor was amusing, but with the exception of one sight gag when someone gets shot it wasn't the kind that will make you laugh out loud, or even smirk. Granted, the two leads at the beginning of the film (Samuel and Parson Henry) are played mostly for laughs, but after the "twist" (which wasn't really much of a twist) about 40 minutes in, the tonal shifts were all over the place. The humor becomes more subdued, being replaced with more moments of introspection. Moments, interesting enough, that weren't all that compelling or amounted to much.
The cinematography was perfunctory, but that's usually to be expected with just about any western. Even "Blazing Saddles" has great cinematography for what it is. It didn't come anywhere close to the beauty that the Zellner's achieved with "Kumiko". The actors all did a great job, but that was to be expected. David Zellner is actually a very underrated actor, in my opinion, and I'd like to see him take on more roles outside of his own films. Nathan Zellner has a brief appearance later in the film that, while a bit humorous, seemed to be created solely for the purpose of giving him more screen time. The brothers like to act, after all. The one thing that did surprise me by the end of the movie was the realization that the entire film was really about Parson Henry's journey, not Samuel or Penelope's. They were more like characters that flowed in and out of his life.
I'm going to watch the film again in a couple of days, so maybe my opinion will change a bit then. But at this point I feel it's ultimately a failure for what it tried to achieve. I'm still giving it a decent rating because it's a good film, but not great.
I want to preface this "review" by saying that I LOVE the Zellner's previous film, "Kumiko the Treasure Hunter". I believe it's a masterpiece, and one of my favorite movies of all time. I've also seen many of their short films, so I know what their sense of humor is like. Needless to say, I probably had unrealistically high expectations for this movie.
Sadly, it was a disappointment. I can't say that I wasn't engaged all the way through, or that it didn't hold my attention (which for many will be a challenge since is VERY deliberately paced), but it just wasn't what I was expecting.
To begin with, the marketing and all of the press that I've watched is misleading. This is not a comedy. It is very much a drama with comedic elements. The humor was amusing, but with the exception of one sight gag when someone gets shot it wasn't the kind that will make you laugh out loud, or even smirk. Granted, the two leads at the beginning of the film (Samuel and Parson Henry) are played mostly for laughs, but after the "twist" (which wasn't really much of a twist) about 40 minutes in, the tonal shifts were all over the place. The humor becomes more subdued, being replaced with more moments of introspection. Moments, interesting enough, that weren't all that compelling or amounted to much.
The cinematography was perfunctory, but that's usually to be expected with just about any western. Even "Blazing Saddles" has great cinematography for what it is. It didn't come anywhere close to the beauty that the Zellner's achieved with "Kumiko". The actors all did a great job, but that was to be expected. David Zellner is actually a very underrated actor, in my opinion, and I'd like to see him take on more roles outside of his own films. Nathan Zellner has a brief appearance later in the film that, while a bit humorous, seemed to be created solely for the purpose of giving him more screen time. The brothers like to act, after all. The one thing that did surprise me by the end of the movie was the realization that the entire film was really about Parson Henry's journey, not Samuel or Penelope's. They were more like characters that flowed in and out of his life.
I'm going to watch the film again in a couple of days, so maybe my opinion will change a bit then. But at this point I feel it's ultimately a failure for what it tried to achieve. I'm still giving it a decent rating because it's a good film, but not great.