Strawberry Mansions
Directed by Albert Birney
★★★½
Frances McDormand in “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” premiering in select theaters on December 25 and globally on Apple TV+ on January 14, 2022.
Strawberry Mansion is a 2021 comedy, drama, surrealist film starring, written, and directed by Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney.
I’ve been spending the last few hours contemplating how to even start this review. First, I think it should be established that this is a review and not an analysis. This is one of the more surreal films I’ve seen in some time. There is an unholy amount of material to analyze if that’s your thing. If you’re someone that is interested in analyzing imagery, metaphor, allegory, and critique of consumerism, then give this a go! Be warned, it is a weird one and there is a lot to digest.
The premise of the film is following a Dream Auditor in an alternate near future. The government records all dreams and taxes them. Our main character has arrived at an elderly woman’s house to audit a large collection of recorded dreams that she has not been reporting. As he dives through her collection of recordings, he begins to learn more about the woman through her dreams and memories of her earlier life. She reveals to him some truths about the current system of dream taxation, and he begins developing feelings for the memory of her past self. The film leaps into some surprisingly heartfelt emotional beats considering the odd tone and unsettling visuals.
One of the lines that surrealist media is forced to walk - by nature of the genre - is balancing the desired tone with the inevitable silliness that comes with the bizarre. Strawberry Mansion struggles with this occasionally. It is conveying very heady and serious topics while playing into some comedic elements. It’s a tough line to walk, but overall handles it well enough. With the surrealist genre, elements like acting performances take a back seat to the ideas being conveyed. The performances are good enough for what is trying to be achieved. There are a lot of interesting effects, both CG and practical. Many times, the effects glaringly stick out, but it plays into the overall message and tone and comes across as odd with intent and purpose. The music is sparse and atmospheric while also being appropriately emotional for the scenes it supports. It does an extremely good job at holding up and reinforcing the plot. The music is currently my favorite part of the whole experience.
My recommendation of this film hinges on how much you enjoy surrealism. If you don’t like surrealism, this isn’t going to make you suddenly enjoy the genre. If you’re into the genre, absolutely give this a watch. It’s weird, unsettling, and thoughtful in all the right ways. This film is no Paprika (Satoshi Kon, 2006), but it’s a solid enough experience and dive into the weird. On a scale of Nope to Dope, this is a Dope!