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Mirrormask: a quirky and splendid little movie Last night Adriana showed me a very strange DVD which will probably not appeal to folks who dislike ‘art house’ movies… but if you like bizarre English phantasmagoria at its quirkiest, set in Brighton and by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean no less, then you will probably just love Mirrormask.
Young actress Stephanie Leonidas has presence beyond her years and reminded me of the young Natalie Portman in Leon, which makes me think she may be one to watch in the future.
I particularly liked the evil sphinx-cats. It is all intensely English, in a magic mushroom induced hallucinogenic Alice in Wonderland sort of way. “We are not at home to Mister Grumpy”.
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We are not at home to Mr Grumpy, Your Majesty….
Simply marvellous.
Yes, one of the best thing those guys have done. I kinda liked the monkey-birds 🙂
“Leon”?
Is there another name for that movie?
Netflix has no “Leon.”
Thanks.
Leon the Professional to give the movie its full name. It was the flick which ‘made’ Natalie Portman (and rightly so in my view).
Although Natalie Portman (I think she was only 12 when she did “Leon”) was quite a bit younger than Stephanie Leonidas, I agree that Ms. Leonidas does have a lot more gravitas and screen presence than most actresses of her age, so I think the comparison is a fair one. Mirrormask was certainly a fun film and as I always remind my (Irish) husband, you just can’t trust a charming Irishman!
no, no, no, the coolest thing in mirrormask was the shadows-which-turn-into-eye-spiders!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this a sort of Alice in Wonderland kinda thing? I vaguely recall it getting mixed reviews in the most mixed sense – i.e. most of them said it had wonderful and abysmal aspects in equal measure.
I’m not actually going anywhere with this. Is it widely available on rental? I haven’t seen it.
So yes, I’d say the consensus is that it is very much an Alice in Wonderland kinda thing 🙂
Most of the reviews didn’t “get it”, that’s true, but then it doesn’t have any car chases or nekkid chicks in slo-mo, so the mainstream won’t “get it”, and it doesn’t try to make political points or say nasty things about George Bush, so some of the arthouse crowd won’t “get it” either. It’s just artful strangeness for people who like that kinda thing.
Jainine-
LOL! Yes movies which don’t have something to say about George W Bush are in short supply.
I have to agree with Jainine, I got and watched the film before I read any reviews, as I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman. I was surprised that reviews were not gushing… I see now that most of them didn’t ‘get it’ at all. Oh well, their loss.
Neil Gaiman’s been making this kind of thing for a while.. is anyone young enough to have seen the kids adaptation of Neverwhere the Beeb did in the early 90’s?
Any appreciative critics should go find some of his books. Smoke and Mirrors comes highly receommended, American Gods and Anansi Boys are his most recent.
I saw (and enjoyed) the Beeb’s adaptation of Neverwhere. NG himself complained that they had turned it into Dr. Who!
Ironically, you can get the DVD of Neverwhere in the USA, but not in Britain…