Now this is an oddball film. I never heard of it until starting the podcast with my wife, Jaime, who is a big Johnny Depp fan. He stars in this movie and I needed to do a bit of research to find this. I was able to secure a copy from the library for us to watch.
We start this off in Alaska where a fisher is trying to get home to his family with an odd, large fish that only has eyes on side. This is a difficult journey that almost sees him kill himself and his dogs almost dying in a pool caused by broken ice.
Now this turns out to be a recurring dream that Axel Blackmar (Depp) has. He works for Fish and Game for the state of New York in the city. He works in the bay. He is then kidnapped by his friend, Paul Leger (Vincent Gallo), when his uncle Leo Sweetie (Jerry Lewis) is getting married. Axel gets drunk by the coercion from Paul and drives him to Arizona. Axel is originally from here, but always wanted to live in NYC.
It is here that he decides to stay for a while. He works at the car lot run by Leo. There he meets Elaine Stalker (Faye Dunaway) and her stepdaughter, Grace (Lili Taylor). Things go on an odd stretch here as Axel falls in love with Elaine and plays in her wild fantasies of wanting to fly. Axel ignores his uncle and Paul's attempts to stay with her. He also sees that there's more to Grace than he realized.
That should recap the movie and introduce our characters, but I want to say that I made that more coherent than the story truly is. We get odd images and things happen as this is a surreal film. I did see tags here of it being a psychological drama and magical realism. The events we are seeing are happening. We are just seeing that these characters are feeling or experiencing them a bit different than what is truly occurring. Part of that is that Elaine is eccentric. She has these notions and she is living them out in a fantastic way. I think this film is made in a way that is great to capture this. It does make me question everything that we're seeing though.
I do have to admit something. When this movie ended, I had to look up things to make sense of what I saw. Something that helped was that there are allegorical images we are seeing. This floating fish is being used to show that we have characters who are 'fish out of water'. They're no longer in what they consider to be their normal. The Cadillacs are used to signify a better time and also the American dream. Axel continues to have this dream that he wants to make into a movie, but it also shows his struggles. We do get a great sequence where he watches old movies with Leo of the family to fill in backstory.
Where I want to then shift is talking about this ensemble cast. Depp is good here and he's acting alongside the likes of Lewis and Dunaway. They bring their unique characters to life. Then we have Gallo, who I know is another odd actor. It was fun to see a young Taylor, who I've seen in a handful of things. She doesn't turn in a bad performance. I also liked the cameo by Michael J. Pollard who has a unique look.
Now this isn't one that I can recommend to everyone. It is hard to follow, but I think you're supposed to just get lost in this world with our characters. They don't necessarily know what is going on either. What I will say is that there is a great tense atmosphere. It made Jaime and I uncomfortable, but it also helped keep us engaged as well. We watched this because of Depp and I'm seeing that he doesn't take on a lot of what people would consider 'normal' roles. He fits a quirky character like this so well. A negative here is that the computer effects are odd, but they're also not real. It does run too long. There is an interesting piece of surreal and arthouse work that I'd say to check out if that is something you enjoy though. It's a solid film overall.
My Rating: 7 out of 10.
We start this off in Alaska where a fisher is trying to get home to his family with an odd, large fish that only has eyes on side. This is a difficult journey that almost sees him kill himself and his dogs almost dying in a pool caused by broken ice.
Now this turns out to be a recurring dream that Axel Blackmar (Depp) has. He works for Fish and Game for the state of New York in the city. He works in the bay. He is then kidnapped by his friend, Paul Leger (Vincent Gallo), when his uncle Leo Sweetie (Jerry Lewis) is getting married. Axel gets drunk by the coercion from Paul and drives him to Arizona. Axel is originally from here, but always wanted to live in NYC.
It is here that he decides to stay for a while. He works at the car lot run by Leo. There he meets Elaine Stalker (Faye Dunaway) and her stepdaughter, Grace (Lili Taylor). Things go on an odd stretch here as Axel falls in love with Elaine and plays in her wild fantasies of wanting to fly. Axel ignores his uncle and Paul's attempts to stay with her. He also sees that there's more to Grace than he realized.
That should recap the movie and introduce our characters, but I want to say that I made that more coherent than the story truly is. We get odd images and things happen as this is a surreal film. I did see tags here of it being a psychological drama and magical realism. The events we are seeing are happening. We are just seeing that these characters are feeling or experiencing them a bit different than what is truly occurring. Part of that is that Elaine is eccentric. She has these notions and she is living them out in a fantastic way. I think this film is made in a way that is great to capture this. It does make me question everything that we're seeing though.
I do have to admit something. When this movie ended, I had to look up things to make sense of what I saw. Something that helped was that there are allegorical images we are seeing. This floating fish is being used to show that we have characters who are 'fish out of water'. They're no longer in what they consider to be their normal. The Cadillacs are used to signify a better time and also the American dream. Axel continues to have this dream that he wants to make into a movie, but it also shows his struggles. We do get a great sequence where he watches old movies with Leo of the family to fill in backstory.
Where I want to then shift is talking about this ensemble cast. Depp is good here and he's acting alongside the likes of Lewis and Dunaway. They bring their unique characters to life. Then we have Gallo, who I know is another odd actor. It was fun to see a young Taylor, who I've seen in a handful of things. She doesn't turn in a bad performance. I also liked the cameo by Michael J. Pollard who has a unique look.
Now this isn't one that I can recommend to everyone. It is hard to follow, but I think you're supposed to just get lost in this world with our characters. They don't necessarily know what is going on either. What I will say is that there is a great tense atmosphere. It made Jaime and I uncomfortable, but it also helped keep us engaged as well. We watched this because of Depp and I'm seeing that he doesn't take on a lot of what people would consider 'normal' roles. He fits a quirky character like this so well. A negative here is that the computer effects are odd, but they're also not real. It does run too long. There is an interesting piece of surreal and arthouse work that I'd say to check out if that is something you enjoy though. It's a solid film overall.
My Rating: 7 out of 10.