 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Strawberry Mansion • Year: 2021 • Country: USA • Director: Kentucker Audley, Albert Birney • Main cast: Kentucker Audley, Grace Glowicki, Penny Fuller, Linas Phillips • Runtime: 91 minutes • Production company: Cartuna, Kaleidoscope, Ley Line Entertainment, Salem Street Entertainment, UnLTD Productions • TRAILER
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If you are into surreal cinema then write down this name because Strawberry Mansion (2021) could be your weirdo movie of the year. The official plot shared by the distributors reads “in a future where the government records dreams and taxes them, a dream auditor gets caught up in the dreams of an aging eccentric”. And if that line sounds attractive to you don’t waste much time and go check out the trailer, because the images are going to catch you for good.
First of all, I have to admit I am not a fan of surreal cinema. In fact, most of the time it bores me to death. So my knowledge of the genre is pretty limited. Still, at moments this movie was reminding me of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) or other Terry Gilliam works, with a big David Lynch influence too. And I ended up liking Strawberry Mansion (2021), so I guess that means the lovers of the genre must really enjoy it.
After all, Strawberry Mansion (2021) is a love movie. The man is in love with a woman that he can only see in dreams. The story is tender and the romance is not too cheesy, so we don’t have the danger to die from a sugar overdose. But it also has a strong component of social criticism, a stand against consumerism, and the intruding commercial practices of a world where we are used to seeing an advertisement with almost everything we do. Or with everything we do while we are awake.
The worldview in Strawberry Mansion (2021) is colorful but not too far-fetched. Images won’t overwhelm the viewer, so the important things to see are easy to spot. The story is bizarre but simple to follow, as the screenplay and the action flow naturally. And the fact that we don’t have an over-exposure of characters keeps things simpler and we can easily focus on the protagonists.
So, get ready for lots of fried chicken and coke sodas, human-size frogs playing the saxophone and sailor-rats, because in Strawberry Mansion (2021) that is what you’re going to get. The movie had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year where it was nominated for the NEXT Innovator Award. Since then, it has taken part in several film festivals. Now it’s the turn to be at the Fantasia Film Festival where it totally fits with the spirit of the event. And Music Box Films has achieved the distribution rights for the movie, so when it comes out on DVD you know what to do!
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt11398346
