Uncle Sean's Moving Picture Show

So, I watched Beyond the Black Rainbow last week, after months of eager anticipation. I mediated my expectations as best I could, though. I know the dangers of expecting too much or building up anything in my head too much. That way leads crushing disappointment.

I wasn’t disappointed by Beyond the Black Rainbow. I wasn’t blown away to the point I will yammer about it constantly either, though. It was good. It was solid visual storytelling. I enjoyed the time spent without lots of dialogue and getting to watch a film that doesn’t rely on near constant chatter. Rainbow doesn’t really give you much to go on for most of the film. It becomes sort of a hypnotic experience and while the point A to point B of the plot is clear, you’re required as an audience member to connect dots for yourself regarding the backstory and motivations. 

I quite liked that about it: having to piece things together. I can’t stand the degree to which things are spoon fed to the audience in a lot of films, especially science-fiction and fantasy films. Honestly, most expository dialogue is clunky and poorly written and there’s no way around it. No matter what you do, no matter what the scene is, now matter what character is spouting it, exposition is always garbage. All I hear during those dialogue scenes is “exposition exposition exposition infodump infodump infodump exposition exposition exposition.” I hate it. Let’s all please stop doing that and find a way to express the necessary information visually and leave all the “hey look at this cool idea I developed for this particular world I’m making a film about” stuff out. 

Anyway, I was talking about Beyond the Black Rainbow. It’s definitely not a sit back and enjoy with a beer sort of movie. It’s not a movie for a relaxed night in. It requires more attention. You need to be engaged in the film to enjoy it, otherwise it might just feel like you’re watching a very unsettling music video. 

It’s weird. It’s interesting. It’s hardly perfect. If you liked Eraserhead, I strongly suspect you’ll be into it. It’s in limited release right now. Hopefully it will get a wider one. Also, I’m keen to catch it on DVD soon. I feel like it bears repeated viewing in a dark locked room.