In an era of bleak, tasteless exploitation, when Hollywood is constantly shoving out remakes and sequels with more concern for fiscal profit than the quality of their films, MirrorMask shines as a beacon of imagination in a sea of dullness. I had anxiously awaited the film for months after seeing a preview of it on a DVD copy of Steamboy. Every expectation I had was fulfilled, and in such a glorious fashion.
The plot revolves around Helena, a teen-aged girl wanting to escape her family's circus. She wishes her mother dead in her rebellion. Not surprisingly, her mother drops down with a sickness and Helena enters a world of her own creation. This world is the real star of the movie, I thought, and stands out as one of the most creative in cinematic history. A phantasmagoric sea of soft sepia light shimmering like old photographs over the crooked outlines of bizarre architecture that looks as if it was wrenched from a surreal Victorian England, populated with mind-bogglingly creatures who wear masks in place of faces. When all around me I'm bombarded with stale advertisements from corporate conglomerates, dry commercials for tacky and unoriginal movie, and perpetually tormented with the blistering cacophony from the abyss that is hip-hop, I was refreshed to see such an original film. Even if I had to search the larger city next to my home for about an hour until I finally found the avant-garde art-house theater, it was worth every minute and every cent.
The plot revolves around Helena, a teen-aged girl wanting to escape her family's circus. She wishes her mother dead in her rebellion. Not surprisingly, her mother drops down with a sickness and Helena enters a world of her own creation. This world is the real star of the movie, I thought, and stands out as one of the most creative in cinematic history. A phantasmagoric sea of soft sepia light shimmering like old photographs over the crooked outlines of bizarre architecture that looks as if it was wrenched from a surreal Victorian England, populated with mind-bogglingly creatures who wear masks in place of faces. When all around me I'm bombarded with stale advertisements from corporate conglomerates, dry commercials for tacky and unoriginal movie, and perpetually tormented with the blistering cacophony from the abyss that is hip-hop, I was refreshed to see such an original film. Even if I had to search the larger city next to my home for about an hour until I finally found the avant-garde art-house theater, it was worth every minute and every cent.