Rating of
3/4
Very Strange!
Franz Patrick - wrote on 11/11/08
The only movie I’ve seen from Guy Maddin so far was “The Saddest Music in the World” back in 2003 and I thought that was really weird. “Brain Upon the Brain!” is on an entirely different level. Even though this film may seem to be about everything–from homosexuality/bisexuality, child abuse, incest, voodoo, quest for identity, to the dangers (and madness) of science–when one takes the time to step back and tries to figure out the commonality among such disparate subjects, one will conclude that it’s basically about childhood memories. But what Maddin does different is straying as far away from Hollywood and totally embracing surrealism mixed with the strangest images of the imagination. Even though I didn’t understand everything in the story, I was with it pretty much the whole time because I’ve never seen anything like it. Despite its strange way of telling the story, I could tell that this project is very personal and I wanted to know which parts of it actually happened to Guy Maddin (since the main character is named after him played by Sullivan Brown as the younger version and Erik Steffen Maahs as the older version). I liked that the story was told in a silent movie technique because it makes the film look and feel more mysterious. The love triangle between Brown, Maya Lawson, and Katherine E. Scharhon reminded me of the noir films back in the 50’s because each of the character involved is keeping a secret from one another which culminate at the end of the picture. As for the soundtrack, it’s pretty much used throughout the movie and it’s nothing short of mesmerizing. “Brand Upon the Brain!” inspires me to look up Guy Maddin’s other pictures because (from what I’ve seen so far) they are able to offer unique experience that Hollywood cannot provide.
