A strange and memorable film in its effort to poetically capture the hopelessness of class divisions in America. Sam Rockwell's Trent is doomed like his father, only with a dream of being alive rather than dead.
His leading lady, leads him on towards destruction in a less than innocent but somehow naive way. Miraculously, Trent is rescued deus ex towel and comb, and I'm not sure exactly who ends up playing the role of Baba Yaga. I think it is actually young Devin. Though Trent does bite the head off a gingerbread boy with near mythological relish early on.
Devin's character will be a touchstone for some. While I enjoy precocious youths in films and will allow them more leeway than most, I thought Devin here verged on painfully precocious. Irritating and inconsistent at times, but then disarmingly charming at other times.
Ultimately this is a film that serves up paradoxes...and while I may disagree somewhat with the assessment of classes in America, I agree with this film a lot more than the folks who would reject such an assessment out of hand. Or even out of chicken claw.
But they did get the seething cauldron of sexual confusion in the US pretty much down.
Strong acting across the board (even when parents were required to play television thin). Also compelling visuals prodded by references to the old Russian folktale (gate of bones emphasized nicely)...and contrasted with a manicured to death view of suburbia.
Ultimately the paradoxes I think are what charge this film, that and a reminder that a young girl can be touched by an older man...with a definition of touched that is not as degenerate as we've been conditioned to assume.
7/10
His leading lady, leads him on towards destruction in a less than innocent but somehow naive way. Miraculously, Trent is rescued deus ex towel and comb, and I'm not sure exactly who ends up playing the role of Baba Yaga. I think it is actually young Devin. Though Trent does bite the head off a gingerbread boy with near mythological relish early on.
Devin's character will be a touchstone for some. While I enjoy precocious youths in films and will allow them more leeway than most, I thought Devin here verged on painfully precocious. Irritating and inconsistent at times, but then disarmingly charming at other times.
Ultimately this is a film that serves up paradoxes...and while I may disagree somewhat with the assessment of classes in America, I agree with this film a lot more than the folks who would reject such an assessment out of hand. Or even out of chicken claw.
But they did get the seething cauldron of sexual confusion in the US pretty much down.
Strong acting across the board (even when parents were required to play television thin). Also compelling visuals prodded by references to the old Russian folktale (gate of bones emphasized nicely)...and contrasted with a manicured to death view of suburbia.
Ultimately the paradoxes I think are what charge this film, that and a reminder that a young girl can be touched by an older man...with a definition of touched that is not as degenerate as we've been conditioned to assume.
7/10