I recently watched Escape From
Tomorrow,
in which a straight American middle-class male plays out his mid-life
crisis within a Boschian theme park.
"Arms inside the vehicle at all times." |
At
the time of its release, there was some concern that the physical
feat of the movie — shooting the bulk of it on-the-sly at Walt
Disney World, inviting censure from Disney's lawsuit-happy copyright
trolls — would eclipse what filmmaker Randy
Moore
was actually hoping to achieve with the film. From the looks of
Metacritic and the (increasingly-suspect) Rotten Tomatoes, that fear
appears to be well-founded.
"All that sneaking around. And for what?" |
I
loved it. Moore's surrealist aesthetic brings to mind early David
Lynch,
and the later, more accomplished films of Guy
Maddin.
Like Lynch and Maddin, Moore draws narrative tension by exploring the
chasm between the deepest and darkest desires of a man, and the
object(s) of said desire, framed within an environment seemingly
manufactured to inflame, subvert and potentially ruin the
protagonist.
So
yeah: Lynch, Maddin. But the film I found myself most frequently
drawing comparisons to wasn't by either of those guys. No, the film
that came to mind was Adrian
Lyne's Jacob's Ladder.
"Wait a minute: what's that you say?" |
"Where we goin'? Who knows?" |
But
that will have to be a post for another day, as the usual summer
distractions are keeping me from the keyboard. Please stay tuned.
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