Dust Bunny
I am once more having trouble finding something streaming that isn’t five to fifty years old and somewhat interesting. There was one film I almost watched but decided at the last minute I wasn’t in the mood for a comedy. I read the blurb for this film and nearly trotted right past it, but on a whim I watched the trailer and decided it actually looked interesting. Some of you may be familiar with my old theory of the Inverse Law of Movie Trailers: the better the trailer, the worse the movie. You be the judge.
This highly stylized movie follows the story of ten year old Aurora, who has a dangerous monster hiding under her bed. No one believes her, even the hitman who lives down the hall, even after it eats her parents. Still, she tries to hire him to kill the monster. Chaos ensues.
The cool imagery begins immediately, with an amorphous dust bunny drifting through the air past a gorgeous urban skyline and directly into Aurora’s open bedroom window. It rolls through the dark room full of creepy dolls, under her bed and becomes an actual bunny shaped dusty clot. This hooked me into continuing to watch the movie, because the visuals are really stunning. They remain stunning for most of the film. The music is unusual but not off putting. It also doesn’t quite telegraph mood properly, I felt, but your milage may vary. There is a lot of camera movement, without becoming irritating or nauseating. I think I may have liked that aspect most of all because it continued all the way through and never felt intrusive. Color saturation and color schemes are very in your face, lending some umph to the world building. Recognizable features mix with a sort of Art Nouveau/Steampunk/Varying Time Periods vibe that is pretty and cool and sets it as an obvious fantasy world with a solid base in our world.
The acting is sound all the way through, but wasn’t something I would brag about. Aurora is played by Sophie Sloan, who is fairly new to the game, of course. She’s a kid. She did all right and I think she may grow into a talented actress. Mads Mikkelsen is a familiar face who has portrayed Dr. Hannibal Lector and a bad guy in Doctor Strange. Sigourney Weaver plays a kind of disjointed weirdo with a lot of unnamed but obvious power. Looked like she had a great time. Sheila Atim is also a familiar face, from The Woman King and Doctor Strange, and I think maybe my favorite character in the film.
This movie put me in mind of several others, like The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Blade Runner, the opening moments of Forest Gump,and any number of Asian kung fu movies. The hitman neighbor very much reminded me of Bob Odenkirk from the Nobody films.
I think the thing that is supposed to be the biggest draw is the highly stylized and fantastical world the story inhabits, and that is what drew me in and wowed me for a while. But then I began to feel nearly drowned in the look of the film over substance of plot. It takes forever for anything to actually happen, with scenes going on too long and tension becoming slack from inaction. I think this would be a terrific short film, but the only thing that kept me going after a while was knowing I was watching for review.
Ultimately, I didn’t quite like the movie, though it is solidly made and has some high points. If you love stylish films that don’t need a ton of plot, you will like this. If you have a kid who can take what would be a scary monster they can relate to (“Don’t touch the floor!”) then watch this with them. Maybe I’m just old and jaded, but this film felt like a puff pastry. Looks great, tastes good for a little while, but there is no real substance.
Triggers: scary monster for kids, some violence with no gore
Available: HBO Max, YouTube prime, Hulu, The Roku Channel, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Fandango at Home
LINKS:
CFR: In Addition
Hmmm….. I’m not a fan of style over substance. I do though hate dust bunnies.
I remember seeing this advertised and thought I would see it. Plus Sigourney Weaver!!! Maybe. Maybe not.
Thanks for the review, Cranky!!!
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