I love all the most pretentious, self-indulgent, outrageous ego trip films that directors create in moments of extreme self-importance! To me, those are the films that are furthest from pandering to the dumb masses, and actually contain the creativity that is so lacking in the studio money machine. I even loved Guy Maddin's other films Brand Upon the Brain, Saddest Music in the World, My Winnipeg and especially Heart of the World! But having said all that, this movie still manages to be too pretentious for me. Good grief.

WEIRD! Some big name actors in poorly scripted plot. Chaotic. Like watching a train wreck. Many people left the movie before it ended. I was memerized and stayed to see if it lead anywhere. It did not! It does not have any profound messages, although I am sure others will try to interpret it as such. It is like someone set-out to make the weirdest movie they could, and see if any would be foolish enough to pay to see it. I was!

Perhaps Maddin's Madness would have been a better title... and madness it is... as intentioned... and I liked this flick... actually, much more than liked! It's more than a worthy installment into this guy's filmography. All actors turn in exceptional performances with Jason Patric as a brilliant standout in a character gone insane who attempts to reclaim his mind and get it in order... at least that's what I thought it was all about!? Visually stunning - like a re-writing of a genre - of what all film noir could have been and should have been. As with all Maddin flicks, the viewer is immersed in a texture and detail rich world that always seems somewhat oddly familiar, except its all just off a notch or two... or a hundred or a thousand... and again, he delivers. I found this film's ambiance, while grotesque, ugly and gritty it somehow transformed from Maddin's techniques, turning it into an ethereal dream/nightmare that beholds it's own beauty as you're blown through the deepest recesses of a consciousness gone desperate, insane and consumed. Editing was a little weak and while reflective of the trauma the film embraces, the pace at times (the beginning), simply moved to fast to allow me to grasp the hyper flashing imagery... and that's the only reason I took points away. I think this flick holds a promise of some unsaid whisper of things to come from this director... not great things because he has and does already deliver great movies - I think this movie is a promise of something that we can't yet comprehend - something that's yet to be... like the re-writing of the genre or something like that. This movie is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I am open minded when it comes to artsy, and prefer non-Hollywood movies. But the first 15 minutes I thought the writers and directors of this blew their budget on drugs. Then it got weird. Black and white - no not used to best effect, a touch of colour could have helped the b&w. Lots of old male and young female nudity...

An exciting dramatic suspenseful movie. Truly artistic with superb set design. Black and white made it even more appealing.

Type of movie usually financed publicly to be shown late at nite and you cannot sleep. Not a bad movie, just weirdly artistic, you catch yourself getting into it & at other times find it long -long if you watch it in one sitting. Suggest you rent it, unless your a Maddin fan. Decor and fashion was phenomenal!

I didn't like this movie, it doesn't mean it's a bad movie. It requires certain taste; it's a very different movie, very artistic, black and white, very dark, kind of depressing, weird... the actors did good job though!

Left the theatre with only one phrase on my lips. "Guy Maddin is truly an Artist!". Mr. Madden introduced the film and and returned to field questions in his introspectively humble Canadian style. What I didn't expect was that the film was, in a large sense, autobiographical. Jason Patric portrayed Guy's domineering father and Louis Negin gave a surprising performance as a sinister ancestor.

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