Quantum Cowboys

I was lucky enough to catch a screening of this film last night, and it is wonderous.

The film uses a mix of animation along with live action to create a surreal world that is always shifting and changing. This does take some getting used to, but by the end of the movie it works seamlessly. The story as well is incredibly confusing, but once you adapt the mentality of "I'm just gonna run with it," it manages to provoke deeper discussion that I love to see from films.

The animation in particular is something that I have never seen, and I doubt I will see again. The way it combines so many styles into one more or less coherent story is marvelous and incredibly impressive.

Now, is it a perfect movie? No, certainly not. Like all movies it has its flaws, but you can tell this is someone's (Geoff Marslett's, in this case) untethered vison of a film. Because of this it becomes something that is truly incredible to watch. I can't wait to watch this again.

As an artist myself, a painter specifically, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie as a moving, literally and figuratively speaking, flowering of rich, unique, and varied animated imagery. I will include "Cosmic Cowboys" in my own personal curatorial list of works I find particularly insightful, entertaining, and strangely relevant in a world hellbent on violence and destruction. Regarding relevance or the question of why this movie is of our present time, the movie offers Hope, at least, a hint that we are not totally powerless and without agency, that we have the ability to peer beyond an authoritarian materialism, and that our mere observation, our particular focus, can indeed affect future events.

David Kwiecinski, Hatch,NM. 2023.

Visually, it's a great movie. Several types of animation, rotoscope, claymation, anime style, among others, overlay and blended. It really stimulates the right side of your brain.

Set mostly in the 1870's Arizona, it has that anarchic, life or death consequences setting.

The voice acting, sound effects, musical score were all top end as well. Some of the dialogue was very appealing, but some was pointless, or could have been better.

I didn't like the plot, or many of the characters. I think the story was supposed to be the least important part.

My left brain was not engaged, as they are trying to link multiverse theory, quantum observation and artistic representation, and that left me confused. There were many plot holes, and poor analysis of true quantum theory.

So right side of my brain = 9, left brain = 3, split the difference and rating it 6 seems appropriate.

Super blend of animation that is fascinating to watch. Interesting and engaging from start to finish. Great and wacky cast. Strap in for this wild ride. Lily Gladstone anchors the cast along with some very strong supporting performances. Love the connection between the multiverses and the styles of animation. Who could imagine a cast that includes Kiowa Gordon, David Arquette, John Doe and Alex Cox. Add in Gary Farmer and Neko Case and John Way and you have as many acting styles as animation styles. The original music by Neko Case and Howe Gelb is great. This film really pushes into creative story telling and was super enjoyed it.

Last night I got the opportunity to view this in muenzinger at CU. It was very well produced and it had great story telling! The soundtrack obviously was worked on a good amount of time and it matched the scenes very well! This was the cast and crews baby for the time spent producing and it grew up as a beautiful film piece! This was very well directed and it was very enjoyable for me and hopefully for many others who get to see it in the future! At the end of the viewing, Geoff talked about his experience creating this bad-boy and is an extremely passionate film creator and was very personally inspiring to me! I could have gotten down more complicated description of the animation, but I want to leave those reading my review, it was really great! There was a quantum physics aspect that made it deeper and led me to think a lot about what it was saying! *I'm still in a deep ponder in the state of wonder.