Dreamland
Life blooms in extraordinary places.
Agnes Bruckner is Audrey, a teenage girl living in a trailer park in the middle of the New Mexican desert. Despite being surrounded by wide open spaces, Audrey still feels trapped by her widowed father (Corbett) and infirm friend Calista (Garner). When an attractive newcomer arrives on the scene (Long), she must ultimately face the choice between her remote home and fulfilling her own dreams.
Member Reviews
Shimmery, Beautiful, Yet Disappointing. - scrawledinwax
This film has a beautiful, understated tone - I think one of the pro reviews called it woozy and it's a word that fits perfectly: watching it, one feels as if one has been in the sun all day. The lead performances are great too - Bruckner plays a role similar to the one she had in Blue Car and is amazing, while Garner nails the weird 'smart airhead' vibe of her character. Even Justin 'the Mac Guy' Long is good too. Ultimately though, the ending disappoints - the film plays with ambiguity and the ineffable only to end up somewhere that just feels too neat and comfortable. Still - for the atmosphere and performances, it's definitely worth the watch.Pleasing at a surface level... - W(h)-oops
Pleasing at a surface level..yet, once plunged beneath, fairly empty both at a story development level, and also at a topical informative level. We don't ever find out what happens to our main character in terms of her main choices in life (though some may argue that we do). We also get led astray in terms of our knowlege of the diseases of multiple sclerosis (diagnoses and proven treatments), and various psychoses (psychological vs. psychotic). In the end, turned out to be disppointing and misleading.Pretty....Pretty Empty - Sean5
Set in a trailer park in New Mexico, the film captures a dreamy, magical landscape of endless hot days and wide open spaces. On one level, it's about teenage angst--figuring out what one wants and what sort of price must be paid to get it. On another level, it's about the tough breaks dealt to a handful of characters down on their luck. The problem is it ultimately fails to deliver a compelling examination on either count. As a story of teen angst, it's thin on the ground. The actors delivered lovely performances, however, the story never gets any traction, and as a result it feels like much ado about nothing. And as a story about how hard life can be in a dusty trailer court with no future, well, it's painted with such beautiful colors and music, you end up just wanting to live there in a turquoise trailer too. If the filmmaker wanted to say "trailer courts are pretty too," then he succeeded. The cinematography is stunning. If he wanted to say life's tough and we can survive it, then the movie falls flat on its face: it's a story without an engine. The filmmaker is pushing it on one of those hot, flat, New Mexican highways, and it never gathers any speed. If you like pretty pictures of the American desert, rent it. If you want a movie that will transport you or move you or teach you something, then give it a pass. Pretty pictures without "drama" or for museums, not movies.
Member Reviews
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Shimmery, Beautiful, Yet Disappointing. - scrawledinwax
This film has a beautiful, understated tone - I think one of the pro reviews called it woozy and it's a word that fits perfectly: watching it, one feels as if one has been in the sun all day. The lead performances are great too - Bruckner plays a role similar ...Pleasing at a surface level... - W(h)-oops
Pleasing at a surface level..yet, once plunged beneath, fairly empty both at a story development level, and also at a topical informative level. We don't ever find out what happens to our main character in terms of her main choices in life (though some may ...Pretty....Pretty Empty - Sean5
Set in a trailer park in New Mexico, the film captures a dreamy, magical landscape of endless hot days and wide open spaces. On one level, it's about teenage angst--figuring out what one wants and what sort of price must be paid to get it. On another level, ...