Strawberry Mansion

This movie reminded me of an episode of The Mighty boosh, if directed by Wes Anderson.

The main character in this movie, I thought was Julian Barrett Howard moon in the Mighty Boosh but it turns out it just looks a lot like him.

I enjoy The Whimsy and creativity of the film, that's what I most will take away. But I don't like was the style of surreal acting, it was very reminiscent of the movie the room with Tommy Wiseau-- just not my cup of tea.

This movie demonstrates creativity on a shoestring budget, a cool concept, but something overall was lacking. It just doesn't have the emotional connection or wow factor of a Wizard of Oz or a Pan's Labyrinth.

If anything, this movie will inspire writers and low budget directors to challenge themselves making a cool concept, low budget film.

How do you resist when even your dreams are taxed and mercilessly injected with ads? This low-budget oddity, part Lewis Carroll part Terry Gilliam, follows a 'dream auditor' down the rabbit hole to find a new dream life and a way to stop the invasion of our minds in the 'Strawberry Mansion'. While the production is sometimes rough around the edges, the concept is intriguing, and the casting and creature designs are quite good. Kentucker Audley anchors this as the slightly bewildered auditor Preble, and actors Penny Fuller and Grace Glowicki feature as the artist Arabella, aged in reality and youthful in dreams respectively. How they managed to craft this lightly engaging gem on such a tiny budget is a question for the big studios to ponder.

Strawberry Mansion isn't perfect, but I have a distinct sense if people understood what it took to deliver the mind-warping visuals delivered thorughout, people would have a lot more respect for it.

This movie appears to be shot in 16mm. In reality, it's a digital film, incorporating stop motion animation, CGI, live action and animation as part of a coherent whole, which was then 'filmed out'' to 16mm. There are only three film labs in the U. S. that can process 16mm film-outs. In the case of Strawberry Mansion, the aspect ratios don't match up, and so the film's original widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio had to be squeezed into the 4:3 aspect ratio of 16mm.

This warps the image but offers the desired grain that Birney and Audley were after. Then the film was printed onto 400-foot reels of roughly 10 minutes and 40 seconds each. The film reels are scanned digitally, and then, reversing the squeezing formula, the image is stretched back out to 16:9, eliminating the warped look, but including all that desired film grain. Strawberry Mansion used 7203 Kodak 50D film stock for its film-out.

Why does it matter you ask? Because the script that accompanies it is the stuff of dreams, and if a Gaspar Noe or a Lynch had delivered this, it would be deemed a box office success (sadly, Strawberry Mansion didn't do so well).

The acting is on point, and while it's true that at time you can 'see through' some of the magic which kills the initial immersion, it's still a marvel of dedicated filmmaking with a very strong main arc, an insightful foray into a future dystopia and a bloody good representation of the human psyche viewed through a dream.

Yes, it's a hard sell, but I admire the Directors for bringing this to life, as it's easily a 20m $ concept shot on a shoestring budget with amazing results. It may not cut as deep as some indy marvels out there, but as a friend recommended me the other day, why constantly give movies on imdb 1 or 10s? Strawberry Mansion confortably sits at a 7, and with a little bit more cash, could have easily pulled an 8.5.

A must watch for any movie lover, or anyone who still have that child-like appreciation for magic, but don't want to be spoon fed a Disney (tm) milquetoast production.

A film about taxes and dreams, and then a love that seems to transcend the latter (or take place within the latter), Strawberry Mansion is also about taxing dreams, and some potential conspiracy about advertising in dreams. There are lots of dreams. It is unsurprisingly dreamlike and there's something undeniably impactful about it, but I feel like I got lost in both good ways and bad.

Still, more good than bad. I mostly liked this a lot. It's creatively fantastical for something that doesn't look big budget, and I like how so much stuff that sounds goofy on paper was presented with sincerity. It commits to a deeply strange logic and always feels consistent to itself, though I wished I was able to keep up entirely. Some parts are quite moving in ways that are hard to describe.

The experience it provides makes it more than worth digging out. I also thought the music was incredible, and it was cool to learn Dan Deacon was behind it (have heard at least one of his albums before).

At the end of the day, I feel like there's a lot that could be said about Strawberry Mansion; maybe even too much. But I can't say much at the moment. Whether seeing it again or reading up on it will unlock more of its secrets remains to be seen. For all I know, maybe everyone else is similarly lost (again, this is mostly a good thing; feels generally intentional, if just the tiniest bit frustrating).

Oh, it was also funny how much one of the supporting actors in this looked like Nick Offerman.

Do you like your movies a bit odd and maybe a little rough around the edges? This is your jam, right here. One of those films that's full of heart and eccentricity, light on telling you exactly what to think about it. I love the retro futurist look, super indie but very charming. Acting isn't bad, either, and fits with the aesthetic.