★ 7 / 10
If David Lynch, Lewis Carroll, and Nicolas Winding
Louisa Moore - Screen Zealots
If David Lynch, Lewis Carroll, and Nicolas Winding Refn all got together to take a little trip with the help of LSD, the end result might be the avant-garde…
If David Lynch, Lewis Carroll, and Nicolas Winding Refn all got together to take a little trip with the help of LSD, the end result might be the avant-garde fantasy horror film “The Blazing World.” This experimental, psychological, and hyper-stylized film sends out warning flares that it’s the work of a mostly inexperienced filmmaker (Carlson Young), but her ambitious vision is one that could grow into something really special.
Margaret (Young) has been haunted by a childhood memory of watching her identical twin sister drown in the backyard pool while her unhappy parents (Vinessa Shaw, Dermot Mulroney) were fighting inside the house. She has never recovered from the trauma or the guilt of that day and as an adult, becomes obsessed with studying and exploring otherworldly ideas like multiple planes of existence that may imprison humans in a world between life and death. Ready to commit suicide, Margaret finds her way down the rabbit hole and embarks on a nightmarish journey into the heart of her psyche, where she confronts the demons from her past.
This is a work for the hardcore art house crowd. It’s more about seeing and feeling, not disciplined interpretation. Don’t try to make sense of most of the story. In other words, just sit back and go with it.
It’s a bizarre film, but Young’s directorial style instantly hooked me. I especially admire her fearlessness when it comes to expressing a personal, creative vision. The film is a dreamscape of the macabre that is ambitious in its abstract conveyance of ideas. “The Blazing World,” in all of its darkly beautiful glory, is a challenging experimental work that could easily find a home in a modern art museum.
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★ 3 / 10
Not a film that should be eagerly sought out
dmansel
The Blazing World, the fantasy thriller from writer/director Carlson Young, opens on the unfortunate drowning of a young girl while her parents and twin sister…
The Blazing World, the fantasy thriller from writer/director Carlson Young, opens on the unfortunate drowning of a young girl while her parents and twin sister are distracted. Years later, Margaret, the surviving twin sister, still struggles with the death, the devolving relationship between her parents, and the visions of the mysterious man who appeared to her when her sister drowned. Now, believing her sister may still be alive in a different dimension, Margaret sets out in a journey of self discovery through the darkest corners of her imagination. Part Alice in Wonderland, part Coraline, part Lynchian nightmare, The Blazing World attempts to address trauma through unconventional means.
Starring Carlson Young, working on both sides of the camera, the acting is the weakest component of The Blazing World. Young is unconvincing as Margaret, the film's lead, caught in a self destructive pattern while dealing with her parent's violently crumbling marriage and the possibility of her twin sister being alive in an alternate world. Had the film been lead by a more competent actress, it may have been a more salvageable product but as it stands, Young's performance greatly hinders the overall result. Likewise, Udo Kier (Europe's answer to Nicolas Cage) sleepwalks through his line deliveries, mumbling his way to a paycheck. The only two people who seems to be attempting anything approaching decent is Dermot Mulroney and Vinessa Shaw as Margaret's parents. They're the highlights of the film as they bicker and argue their way through scenes together and show surprising depths of loneliness when in scenes with Maragaret separately.
The Blazing World is director Carlson Young's full length adaptation of her 13 minute short of the same name that premiered at Sundance in 2018. Sadly, the feature length version is a reminder that some short stories are better left as short stories. The strange riff, or maybe homage, to Alice in Wonderland is caught up in a meandering story that winds up being a bit of an incoherent mess, narratively. Young seems to be modeling the tone of the film after the works of directors like David Lynch and Terry Gilliam, but the cute camera tricks used to convey doubt or disorientation are quickly overused, turning them into more gimmicks than effective tools. Without enough story to stretch the adaptation, the film feels far longer than its 99 minute runtime suggests. Still, for all that, Young has a clear, firm vision of what she wants the film to be, I just don't think her vision matches the subject matter at hand. For a movie that's supposedly addressing untreated grief and mental health issues, the decision to attempt style over substance isn't a great idea; whether this was the trappings of a rookie director attempting to ape the works of established directors or just Young attempting to do her own thing, The Blazing World comes across as a hollow, empty foray into touching on serious issues.
Overall, The Blazing World, while noble in its intentions, falls well short of the mark on execution. Subpar acting does the film little favor as some actors struggle to work with the bad writing and some look like it might be their first time on camera. While this isn't a film to be avoided at all costs, it's not a film that should be eagerly sought out: it's a movie to queue up with friends and stiff drinks after all other movie options have been exhausted. The Blazing World is in select theaters and everywhere on demand October 15th.
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TOMATOMETER
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AUDIENCE
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4.4/10
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Self destructive movie!