Strawberry Mansion

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🎙️ EPISODE 621: 12.16.22 Not gonna lie. When I saw that the lead actor / co-writer and director was named "Kentucker" I was like hoo boy here we go again. After a variable deluge of werid-for-werid's-sake fair lately — ranging from middling to loathsome — my seeming hipster bias was stronger than ever. This is, of course, a paradox, as I'm more or less a 'hipster' myself, such as anyone even uses that word any more. I like weird shit! But in my old age, I find myself coming back to the same conclusion over and over again: I want the weird shit to also be good. Sue me. (Ed. Note: Most people don't choose their names so it's one of the forms of cultural etiquette to use that against them in any social situation. For example, I met a dude named Teal the other day and I judged his whole life before he even opened his mouth. Turns out I was 100% right about him but that's besides the point.)

But all my fears were put to bed in the first ten minutes or so. This is an excellent movie.

The difference between a "trying too hard" bad vibe and an authentically good and weird one is sometimes minuscule. It's a tight rope walk over lava. As with anything, great risk leads to great reward and Strawberry Mansion brings it home to the other side. In fact, it's at its most thrilling in the final act as the film is barely holding on by a thread; there's so much beauty and truth in the chances they take here. And the film itself is an aesthetic marvel. The log line:

In 2035, society's dreams are taxed by the government, which has mandated increased surveillance measures upon the general public. Government agent James Preble travels to the countryside home of the elderly Arabella Isadora, an artist who lives alone with her pet tortoise Sugar Baby in the self-titled Strawberry Mansion, to conduct an audit.

Obviously, a movie so explicitly about dreams and dreaming lends itself to any number of WTF creative choices. This goes hand in hand with my previous comments on tone. That you can do whatever the fuck you want, doesn't mean you should, and how you do it is just as important as why you're doing it. That said, I was instantly absorbed by the look of this film and gradually sunk into the story as well. Apparently shot on digital and transferred onto 16mm to give it a naturally grainy texture, the movie mixes practical FX and animation techniques with CGI seamlessly. I'm not astute enough to tell you how they did it exactly and, frankly, I don't care. The end result is really all that matters and this is outstanding, a lovely mix of lo-fi DIY creativity that feels like it could have been made in several eras. For example...

**WARNING**
I don't want to spoil anything so I would implore you:
go check out the movie first before continuing with the review!
($2.99 rental and currently streaming on MUBI)

The story itself is a bit more muddled, but that's alright. Why they need to "tax your dreams" in this future world is never quite flushed out. It's all just a means to broadcast their bigger message. Not only does the government monitor and tax your dreams in this future world, but an advertising agency has secretly developed the technology to infiltrate your sleep, to sell you products as your dreaming.

I was instantly reminded of this quip by Ralph Nader in Morgan Spurlock's mostly shitty POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold...


(Note: That was taken from the trailer — I believe he expands on it even more in the actual film, but it's been ages since I watched it. For what it's worth you can see more of Nader dunking on Spurlock in this clip here.)

This idea — having your non-waking hours sabotaged by hideous advertisements spurred by the endless greed, we assume, of pure evil corporations — is a wonderful device to criticize rampant consumerism and the sick urges of capitalism TODAY. And what I really appreciated was the filmmakers' — relative newcomers, Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley — devotion to this concept. They stay true to the core objective in the midst of all this madness. The madness has a point (ergo the movie has a point! wow what a concept!). And I was doubly struck by how, in addition to doing all of that so tactfully in a film featuring a man in a giant papier-mâché frog mask playing saxophone, it still felt so tender and sweet. There is a beautiful love story which emerges that never feels forced. It's great.

Look, you could try to pick apart the connective tissue of the 'plot' all day long. Have at it, loser. You're missing the point.

This is a fantastic work of art, a true testament to the spirit of imagination. All the people involved, from the copious visual artists and animators to the brilliant musician Dan Deacon and his excellent soundtrack (and everyone in between), deserves a lot of credit. This one is weird as shit, sure, but — more importantly — it's good as hell, too. I almost forgot that a film could be both.

That being said, I just learned that "Kentucker Audley" is a pseudonym, which only proves my point that I am right about everything and basically the most perfect, unassailable human ever to walk the earth 😉

UPDATE: Having just discovered Audley's amazing vimeo channel where he satirizes kogonada-eeque video-essays, I take everything all of my gentle ribbing re the pesudonym back. Dude is legit and I think I get his humor so much better know.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 620 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 622 ⫸

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Strawberry Mansion is a 2021 American science fiction adventure romantic comedy film directed and written by Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley. It stars Penny Fuller, Kentucker Audley, Grace Glowicki, Reed Birney, Linas Phillips and Constance Shulman. It was released on January 29, 2021.