Applecart comes at you immediately like a refreshing blast of cold water in a desert wasteland of missed opportunities that seems to permeate the Indie Horror scene. From the very first scene Dustin gives you an inkling that the film you are about to watch is going to offer imagery that might be bluntly presented to you and often can push boundaries.
This is a film that uses a silent film set up but uses a laugh track as a way to nudge the audience into understanding where the characters stand as well as making that track a character itself. The actors all use masks and use body language to evoke emotion but all put on incredible performances and articulate the character's emotions better than most speaking roles do. The masks themselves feel very natural very shortly into the film and you have to credit the cast for being able to make you forget they're wearing them. The stories themselves are all fairly short and tell tales of lust, cheating and failed seduction and are done so very convincingly.
The score is one of piano music that you would definitely associate with the old musical sets that would accompany the silent films in the theaters. Watching this on a bigger screen and even in a theater atmosphere gives you a vibe of instant nostalgia that only heightens the experience.
Overall this is a film without spoken dialogue yet it had a lot to say. The actors weren't hindered by masks that prevented their facial expression, they were enhanced and emboldened by it. Some people might find the graphic nudity and sexually explicit scenes to not be their cup of tea and to them I say - this is art. Art is expressive and raw and sometimes it requires an extremely open mind to really appreciate and interpret, but once you toss all of those prejudgments aside you really get a pretty amazing film.
