Film Ink

[His Name Is Frank]

Summary:

As the light fades and the city goes to sleep, two forces emerge. They are invisible except for the power they exert over us in our sleep, battling for our souls through dreams. One force delivers hope and strength through good dreams; the other infuses the subconscious with desperation through nightmares. John and Emma, father and daughter are wrenched into this fantastical dream world battle, forced to fight for John's soul and to save Emma from an eternal nightmare. Separate in their journey, they encounter unusual characters that exist only in their subconscious. Or do they?

I just watched this on Hulu, bored and not expecting much. Holy damn was I surprised and amazed by this movie! Visually alone, this movie is beautiful. The dream-like state that floats you through each scene reminded me of a 2c-i trip I once had. The music.....oh man, the score for this movie is amazing. Enough to make me look for the soundtrack.

The last time I felt this was about a movie was when I watched Donnie Darko for the first time. I'm not comparing the two. They're completely different, but in a way, they are very much alike. I'm just comparing the feeling the two gave me. I know this may sound lame to the average, passive movie viewer, but I fell in love with this movie. I really did. The story was beautifully told. A dream state fairy tale that was unique and familiar at the same time.

One of my favorite scenes was when the Pathfinder explained how everything
downward spirals into a chain connection then literally conducts the chain of events that lead to what needed to happen. One two three four. One two three four. One two three four. One two three four.

Now I'm going to Amazon to buy it. Unfortunately for me, I had to watch it on a smaller view. Every time I enhanced to full screen mode, the message that tells you to press esc to exit full screen mode stayed on the screen and wouldn't go away.

Trailer

 

[psood0nym]

I remember enjoying this film quite a bit on ketamine. It's hard to recommend it confidently to a sober viewer for that reason, but I wouldn't be surprised if I would enjoy it off of drugs as well. It was fairly unknown outside of torrent sites at first because it never had a wide theatrical release but ultimately gained noteriety because it was one of the most illegally downloaded films ever (which lead to DVD success).

I get the the idea of it giving the "feeling" of Donnie Darko. Narratively I remember it being a mix of The Matrix, Poltergeist, Pan's Labyrinth, The Cell and a few others I'm forgetting, with a little of the aesthetic of Sin City (compare the bad guys with Sin City's "shiny glasses cannibal"). It's refreshingly violent and adult themed for a fantasy.

It's also available on Netflix Instant Viewing if you have that and you're looking for slightly higher quality than unpaid Hulu.

EDIT: Speaking of Netflix Instant, what happened to the threads for it? Both the "good Netflix Instant" and the "tips and tricks" thread are now listed as invalid, and this happened after the prior was merged with the latter (were they both merged with yet another larger thread?).

 

[His Name Is Frank]

I watched it with a clean head and it was amazing. Watch it again sober. You'll love it just as much. I promise.

 

[allium]

I watched it sober a year ago, I forgot a bit details of the film.
I certainly wouldn't call it outstanding, but IMO it deserves at least 4/5

 

[axl blaze]

eh, this movie didn't really impress me. good premise, but just a little bit too intangible and goofy for my tastes. in this movie's defense, I only watched about half of it. I have been meaning to watch the rest of it for some time now, and I will do so soon. I thought I was going to be the only person in the world who has seen this movie, I suppose it has greatly benefited from Netflix's instant play