Mythwest

Okay. So yes, I watch a lot of movies. I have a ravenous appetite for... escape? exploration? Seeing through someone else's eyes? I'm not sure, honestly.

This film doesn't just turn its back on the "safe, sterile committee approved content" of modern movies... it soars off over the horizon into a dangerously offensive land of myth portrayed in modern times.

It offends and delights so profoundly that Terry Gilliam takes a moment to introduce and apologize... somewhat unapologetically.

I was unable to cover my eyes with my hands, despite the urge to do so, as I watched enthralled. The story unfolds, seeping open gradually almost like a jack-o-lantern left out in a warm late october rotting in the sun.

There are few, I think, that I can recommend this film to. It is a brutal and barbaric norse myth at times, exposed in the harshly bright daylight of the modern day midwest. Dark fantasy is easier to digest when more safely removed from reality than this.

It is, without a doubt in my mind, an extraordinary piece of cinema.

The film is: Terry Gilliam's Tideland (2005)