"Arizona Dream" is a real UFO but the kind of UFO we want to be taken to whatever universe it would lead us to. That's pure cinematic escapism, in fact, pure cinema.
"Arizona Dream" is strange and that might be the only objective point for critics and praises to converge to. And I've got to speak for myself, the film is so hypnotic and enchanting that I can't imagine how it can ever be criticized, so this is a positive review, yes, because Hollywood is so dry on experiences like "Arizona Dream" that such movies deserve admiration.
What's the story about? It's a tale about fishes, or one fish actually, a fish and a young man named Axel (Johnny Depp) who has strange dreams involving Eskimos and again, fishes ... I could go on and on, but the point is that all the plots and subplots I will enumerate will sound disjointed while they're so connected to the whole reverie that there's a weird feeling of coherency. The film transports us from one state to another (any meaning of state) without finding us questioning the reason. It doesn't make sense yet it does in the sense that it absorbs all your senses, like a real dream would do actually.
And it doesn't come as a surprise that it's Emir Kusturica, perhaps the European heir of Fellini, who could translate a dream-like vision into a quite-easy-to-follow movie. Any other director would have added some black and white photography, some hallucinatory moments, some non-sequitur elements to better highlight the pointlessness of a plot. Kusturica's directing is not only confident about our attention but attentive about our degree of involvement. It knows when it needs to focus on something tangible and meaningful, and it knows when to throw all the conventions out and float above them, when to act and when to improvise. Even dreams can be codified, even reality needs to loosen up.
Again, what's the film about? Well, this is a film about relationships, some dramatic as the song says, it's about encounters that suddenly gives a total meaning to someone's life or seals the fates of others. Axel's uncle (Jerry Lewis) feels guilty for the loss of his nephew's parents and want him to work for him in his Cadillac-selling business, Elaine (Faye Dunaway) is a woman who dreams of flying, Paul (Vincent Gallo) wants to be an actor, Elaine's daughter Grace (Lily Taylor) a turtle. Realistic or crazy, we're all defined by a quest, a secret will. And these quests always find a root in the past or some dream, whether the past defines the dream or the dream shapes the future might paint the essence of the present.
I don't think it goes further than that, trying to find other meanings would mean entrapping this film in a rational box while there is more to enjoy besides depth. Like a Kusturica movie, this film has a lot of music going on, a lot of accordion, a lot of dancing and loving, of passion and pathos, even jealousy and envy are powerfully conveyed by the performance of the two peripheral characters played by Taylor and Gallo, while Depp and Dunaway can abandon themselves in an ocean of lust and fully enjoy their romance until they learn to deal with the consequences. How weird that you could feel the word "deep" in Depp and Faye Dunaway almost rhymes with "fly" and "runaway".
And as a leitmotif, we have this flying fish caught earlier by an Eskimo who belongs to either a dream or a reality, to say that it makes the connection between the opening scene and the rest of the film or the rest of the film with the ending scene is beside the point, if there's any, yet, there's a feeling of completeness, the idea that sometimes, we all have a vision of what we should do and what shall become of us. If the Eskimo metaphor is right, so maybe whatever the protagonists wish to happen to them after they die, will indeed happen... because maybe that's what Heaven is about.
Why would Uncle Leo be so sure he'd meet Axel's parent if he died? It doesn't really matter because at that moment, we've embraced the film's magic and we believe he does. Later, Axel says to Grace that he used to love her mother but then she became a cloud he could see through and realized he loved her. Axel is crazy in the way he sticks to his vision but so does everyone. In another scene meant for laughs, Paul impersonates Cary Grant in the famous plane scene of "North by Northwest", from our perspective, with the images of the original film, it's a masterstroke of impersonation, for the audience, his motionlessness is ridiculous. Does it matter again? No. Paul believes in his talent. And Kusturica opens our eyes about it.
And that might be the 'point' after all. The most remembered part from the film is the flying sequence and the unforgettable "Death Car" song from Iggy Pop and Goran Bergovic, the score contains many more haunting musical gems saying in musical language that heaven isn't in our visions, but in their fulfillments. That might be what film-making is about, it starts with a vision and the rest is just poetry in motion. Kusturica is aware than he's privileged for making such movies, which would be impossible today.
But he had this luck to come at Hollywood at the right time, the right moment, to have Johnny Depp before he became a supreme movie star, Faye Dunaway who was always "in" for ambitious projects ("Mommie Dearest" was a blessing in disguise as it allowed her to work in weird but fascinating movies like this or "Barfly") and Lewis, Gallo, Taylor complete the gallery of eccentric but appealing protagonists, I mentioned Fellini but there's something weirdly Hustonian in that bunch of dreaming misfits.
And something unique about Kusturica, as usual...
