Tideland - a Terry Gilliam film

[grady]

This is a heads up to all about the new Terry Gilliam that is slowly starting to see release.

official site (http://www.tidelandthemovie.com/main.html)

I procured a copy of this film yesterday and attempted to watch it with a friend. Both of us are fans of Terry Gilliam. We've each listened to commentaries on old Criterion laserdiscs for The Adv. of Baron Munchausen, Time Bandits, The Fisher King, and Brazil. I feel it necessary to mention that since I wasn't the biggest fan of The Brothers Grimm but I have enjoyed all of his films and the work he's created. (I watched Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas 8 times in the cinema. I was a projectionist. I had keys to the building. Why watch a movie at home alone when you can watch one alone in a theater.) I could continue on about my love for Terry Gilliam, Brazil, "...the real Baron Mon-Choo-sen," and "games, games that want to played," but I think my redundancy gets my point across.

It makes me sad to say that my friend and I were only able to get through about 32 minutes into the film before turning it off. Instead we watched some of the new season 8 boxset of The Simpsons.

The following evening, tonight, we tried again and stopped at the 55 minute mark. It's hard to say what's so bad about this film because it looks marvelous. However, very little if anything seems to happen. It seems that Gilliam has got too bogged down in his visuals and dutch'd camera for every other shot. I felt no connection to the story and couldn't get into it. From what I'd read about the film from it's showing at the Toronto Film Festival last year, I was expecting bad, but not this bad. (In Toronto, there were tons of walkouts within the first 45 minutes. Never a good sign.)

I guess this happens from time to time. Someone whose work(film, music, art, literature, etc) you truly admire, enjoy, respect and are inspired by does all the opposite. I kind of feel like two for two right now in this regard.

Anyone else have a similar experience to share?

[adam]

I don't know that I can compare something else to this, but I think I can safely compare my feelings on Gilliam to yours. I love the man's work, particularly Fisher King and Fear and Loathing, and I felt Grimm was shit. I mean, fuck, it was garbage. So, unfortunately, you're just confirming what I feared.

[b.miller]

yeah... for a movie to play Toronto and not be really heard of since... that = bad news. Much like that Edison movie that just got dumped onto DVD (think they changed the name a bit)... it was supposed to be, like, Justin Timberlake's big "acting" coming out and a star-studded cast and all... I haven't seen it but it sounds like CRAP. so... I'm not surprised that Tideland sucks. Sad, yes... but not surprised. Even with the general thought that Brothers Grimm was Gilliam consciously "selling out" to get back on his feet after Quiote... that one took forever to dump into theaters as well...

It's playing at a festival in town in about a month... i'm gonna check it out then, but it's more of a casual priority. Maybe someday Gilliam will connect again but... you know... maybe not.

[King of Snake]

Much like that Edison movie that just got dumped onto DVD (think they changed the name a bit)... it was supposed to be, like, Justin Timberlake's big "acting" coming out and a star-studded cast and all... I haven't seen it but it sounds like CRAP

edison is a big pile of poo. I only watched it cause i had to do a tv ad for a promo action connected to the film.

[dubman]

i heard this movie was brilliant from a few folks, so it sounds more polarizing than any definite thing so far.

[GforGroove]

so besides looking gorgeous.. because the look of this movie is mind blowing... also is the most disturbing thing i've seen in so long.
I was totally shock in my seat, wishing it ends soon...what the fuck was Terry Gilliam trying to do?....

oddly enough, the end is great...it's beautiful..(or i just went out of my mind officially!) but the end is so hopefull..


i didn't know how much it was my dirty mind making up things... or it is actually Terry Gilliam mindfucking the audience.

i don't know what to think. Certainly i'm not up for nightmares like this, but damn!! never before something so fucked up looked this gorgeous.
the girl that act there you won't believe it... but i wonder if she needs theraphy now for lifetime.

I could go on without watching though... i really don't need this ubber shocking movie in my list. it's too much.. but i guess TG is too much always, he just went far far far off.

[ffolkes]

hmmm. i recently read a rumour that gilliam might direct a gorillaz movie for the famed cartoon band... off topic slightly yeah, but still gilliam.

[dubman]

that settles it, i'm seeing it.

i'm seeing too many posts like this, or posts from people who really really hated it. not "bored n hated it" but actually have enough bile for it that this movie has to be at least interesting if not completly awesome.

:dance:

[b.miller]

um.. i was bored and hating it, but you should see it anyway.

[grady]

It's just an all around bad film.

[dubman]

previews remind me a lot of the movie Northfork.
anyone see that one?

[grady]

previews remind me a lot of the movie Northfork.
anyone see that one?

The primary difference being that Northfork was actually a good film. I saw it a few times during it's theatrical release.

[dubman]

The primary difference being that Northfork was actually a good film.

okay, geez.

hey, check out the critics... if this is what they consider bad reviews then i really *do* need to see this right now.

63
TV Guide Ken Fox
By turns fascinating and intolerable.

58
The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
It's no "trip through the dark to appreciate the light." It's a nightmare from start to finish.

50
Los Angeles Times Sam Adams
Tideland is equally evocative of the pastoral mystery of an Andrew Wyeth painting and the looming menace of "Psycho." The disparity is fitting, because as Tideland unfolds, it's difficult to tell if you're watching a fantasy or a horror movie, or one superimposed on the other.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter
Tideland is the easiest of Gilliam's films to follow, yet the most disturbing to watch

38
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Tideland is, by turns, a complete bore and a creepy experience. And I don't mean "creepy" in a positive sense.

38
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
A murky swamp of a movie, Terry Gilliam's defiantly surreal Tideland finds every good idea drowning in an excess of indulgence.

30
The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
A misconceived washout of a darkly gothic story of madness, addiction and child abuse made all the more unpleasant by Gilliam's trademark intense visual style.

30
Variety Leslie Felperin Dragged down by a sputtering script and torpid pacing. Way too disturbing for kids and too weird for most grown-ups.

10
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
The misanthropic nadir of the director's crash-and-burn career.

10
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Enter this diseased Lewis Carroll universe at your own risk.

0
New York Post Kyle Smith
It's trashy and disgusting - and those are the best parts. Mostly it's just an endless, pointless drone with characters like bacteria and dialogue like an untuned radio.

0 Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman Dour, absurdist, gruesomely awful.


I CAN'T WAIT!

[GforGroove]

okay, geez.

hey, check out the critics... if this is what they consider bad reviews then i really *do* need to see this right now.


i kind of have that thought too. Like must be incredible, people is just stupid.
even though worth to see it, it is completely repulsive. The more i think on it the more i'm conviced it is awfull. but looks amazing.
wierd.

[grady]

i kind of have that thought too. Like must be incredible, people is just stupid.
even though worth to see it, it is completely repulsive. The more i think on it the more i'm conviced it is awfull. but looks amazing.
wierd.

It's a fucking catch 22 and it's painful too, really painful.

And I can be an apologist for Gilliam too. I have a very deep fondness for Brazil and esp. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. But man, Tideland is just down right bad.

[grady]

okay, geez.

hey, check out the critics... if this is what they consider bad reviews then i really *do* need to see this right now.

I CAN'T WAIT!

Hey dubby,

Here is one more negative to throw onto the heap.

A.O. Scott, The New York Times
link (http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/movies/13tide.html)

[dubman]

du-ude.

A.O. scott doesnt need to keep writing anymore for me and the rest of common america to know he's a ridiculous butthole with irrational problems.

[grady]

du-ude.

A.O. scott doesnt need to keep writing anymore for me and the rest of common america to know he's a ridiculous butthole with irrational problems.

Thats some wonderful insight there. Have you even read anything the man has written, out of curiosity or do you just make the knee jerk judgements on the basis of one review?

[dubman]

Thats some wonderful insight there. Have you even read anything the man has written, out of curiosity or do you just make the knee jerk judgements on the basis of one review?

why you people always assume that a long winded trashing indicates i havent read anything?
if anything i read too much.

i used to read reviews so much that i had to tear my eyes away from the pages, physically, and i came to the blinding (haha, pun totally intended) realization that critics try to toe the line of flexibility and preference and art so hard that they rarely say anything substantial except occasionally hit on the correct adjective. what i said about mr. scott applies to almost all of them.

[dubman]

haha so i got this for my birthday

the worst thing about this movie is the pacing.
buuuuuuuuuuut
basically it's everything i was hoping to see out of it?
kids are fkkn weird and hilarious. it's difficult to make anything "happen" in this movie because she's in a very boring situation (a dead dad, an imbalanced recluse, and a retard.. all without a full grasp of the implications of any of it), and it's just really about how kids could cope with this mundane dysfunction, and a sort of alternate reality develops where near the end the whole thing feels like a storyline fabrication.

it was really interesting and not nearly the depraved headfuck a lot of people make it out to be.

i *knew* i'd like it.