by Jarrod Jones. With the 59th Chicago International Film Festival in full swing, DoomRocket is here to highlight its choicest selections. In review: Hayao Miyazaki‘s The Boy and the Heron; Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario.
THE BOY AND THE HERON. [Japan.]
Hayao Miyazaki’s dreamscapes take reliably vivid, peculiar, and, in places, kinda gross shapes in The Boy and the Heron. The film follows the aftermath of a family tragedy, descends into a heady adventure of danger and discovery, and posits a few hard truths about life in the doing. It also features a talking heron (Masaki Suda), who is so hideous in aspect that when he prods Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) into an adventure, it’s a wonder the young man doesn’t turn heel and run in the opposite direction.
Still and all, the film, like all Studio Ghibli offerings, is rich with detail and excels at depicting the rhythms of quiet, provincial living. The way Miyazaki can assemble a single frame so that it both feels real and seems to actually breathe gives his films a sense of truth that many live-action films can’t touch. Heron is no different; when the film spends time with Mahito as he struggles to cope in a new home/family situation following the shocking death of his mother, you feel his loss. As he settles into his new rural home, somewhat awkwardly, sometimes violently, the specificity of the environment feels as though it’s sat there in the liminal space between Miyazaki’s memories and our understanding of them for generations. Likely because it has. (This story is based on Miyazaki’s upbringing, which gives its themes of loss and longing additional heartwrenching power.)
Adjacent to Mahito’s home is a dark forest and a strange tower, two fantasy settings that contrast with his father’s wartime factory just a bit further down the road. The war that Miyazaki grew up with looms in the background of The Boy and the Heron, with the devastation yet to come gathering into a whisper during the film’s darker moments. It’s no wonder it mushes into silly rude shapes (again, the heron is really gross) — this is a story about an adolescent boy enduring life’s harder lessons at an age when he should be daydreaming, finding delights instead of holding despair at bay. Miyazaki’s ascendancy as an artist has created new dreams, and the creative pursuit under the shadow of such sadness must have been a struggle. With The Boy and the Heron, he offers us a map to navigate our own pain, to our dreams yet to come. A small gift.
8.5 out of 10
Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Cinematography Atsushi Okui.
Starring Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura, Shōhei Hino, Ko Shibasaki, and Takuya Kimura.
Produced by Toshio Suzuki.
Unrated. Contains youths in peril and rude bird humor.
DREAM SCENARIO. [United States.]
As someone who watches an inordinate amount of movies, I can say with certainty that Nicolas Cage has popped up in at least one of my dreams. (I had some interesting ones following Mandy.) And wouldn’t you know it, that’s the premise of Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, an oddball comedy where Cage plays Paul Matthews, a tenured but otherwise unremarkable college professor who finds himself thrust into a cultural tempest when he, unbidden, enters the nighttime reveries of complete strangers. How this happens, who can say? At least people are intrigued by Paul — as he doesn’t do much in these dreams, he seems harmless, possibly even marketable. (Sprite is interested.) Later, this peculiar psychic link takes a dark turn, and… well, now’s a good time to mention that Dream Scenario is produced by Beau is Afraid director, Ari Aster.
Some of the best bits are watching Cage shuffle around strangers’ sleepytimes with this odd grin on his face — sometimes he’s a curious pilgrim, a voracious lover, or, later, a ruthless predator. In waking life, his character is none of these things, though his quagmire doesn’t seem to produce any noticeable urge to change his personality. It definitely changes the attitudes of everyone around him; people in this film behave apathetically, even cruelly, randomly punishing Paul like those hostile bots falling from the sky in The Matrix Resurrections. Whatever works. Dream Scenario is still funny — and besides, a story doesn’t need profundity to be well told. Sometimes, a character just needs to figure out what they aren’t instead of what they can, should, or will be.
Following last year’s breakout film Sick of Myself, Borgli is unquestionably a filmmaker on the rise. The way he puts in-camera nightmares and social critique to work, he should do well working within the nebulous vibesland of A24. Dream Scenario is equally nebulous; the film’s predicament broaches topics like shared trauma and cancel culture, though what it wants to say about either is unclear. it makes a few wild gestures at capitalism, too, though we’re given even less to parse the intent behind them. On the plus side, the dreams Borgli conjures, and his assemblage of the fragile goofs who dream them, reminded me of Michel Gondry; like Gondry, Borgli’s directorial approach is funky and inventive, and thematically just as vague. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the obvious exception for Gondry here, and while some may liken Dream Scenario to that film, it’s a lofty comparison to make.
6.5 out of 10
Written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli.
Cinematography Benjamin Loeb.
Starring Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula, and Dylan Baker.
Produced by Lars Knudsen, Ari Aster, Tyler Campellone, Jacob Jaffke, and Nicolas Cage.
Rated R for uninhibited sex dreams, nightmare fuel, and exasperated profanity.
Our CIFF 2023 coverage continues all week.
More CIFF 2023 Reviews:
Reviewed: Anatomy of a Fall, The Hypnosis
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