Justin Gallion

I rarely feel inspired to write a review about any movie, and I watch a lot of them. This movie pushed me headlong into caring about the characters and empathizing with them. Yeah, it's dark, demented, and the personalities are a little disorienting, but that's pretty true to life when drama is allowed to flood the scene. The absurdity of it all is spellbinding; the display of the writer's philosophy on death, dying, and what it is to live is beautiful; and the depiction of homosexuality reaching across the generational gap is not that off center save for the extreme behavior needed for a fast paced story. Truly excellent. Very memorable. Cried more the second time around.

The hero's journey is one in which the protagonist moves from nothing, struggles through everything, and comes out the other side more than any could have honestly expected. Sometimes the payout from this attainment is a tragic end, sometimes it is overcoming a villain, and other times it is acknowledging that where one started is more affirming than where it ultimately went. This movie does not need a genre, for it emphasizes the journey, not an expectation. The characters in this story are well developed, multi-faceted, and portrayed with honest emotions. Our main characters are relatable and are given at least a small piece of every seasoning a sapient being can have and then some. The audience is immersed in raw anxiety and hopelessness racing toward a climax that is almost overwhelming. The plot is broken, fractured, frantic, disorienting, and simply brilliant. In a world of neuro divergent humans desperate to understand why, any sensible depiction of our reality should absolutely be filled with nonsense. The fight to make sense of the frustratingly mundane and droning nature of the world that's been built around us and/or by us is exemplified through a classic struggle between parent and child. The failing of the parent to understand the needs of the child and the child's inability to communicate those needs in a context that the parent can resonate with. Without all the chaos and noise, the story would be flat and completely unwatchable, but with it, we are flooded with images that might reflect our own thoughts in a greater, more universal way. Yes, it's a little cheesy, and that makes it more palatable. Yeah, some of the action is off-beat, but that makes the good parts more powerful. Some of the scenes are blinding, but they should be sometimes: It is hard to look at all the beauty and terror of life's choices and equally hard to accept the consequences of the choice not made. Art (and life) is imperfectly perfect, profound, simple, and often a contradiction. This is definitely art, and I love it. In the end redemption and resolution are only achievable through direct confrontation with one's shadow and then embracing the whole of it all. Watch it, learn from it, love it or hate it. I assure you that there is something in it for everyone, everywhere.