Dreamland - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Dreamland



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Dreamland is just that. A fevered dream of a movie that is rife with flashes of light, flashbacks galore, and a full till run towards the end of the movie in such frenetic fashion that you likely won’t even remember what you saw by the time the sun rises the next morning. It’s a movie about meaning in life and a search for a BETTER life in depression era America, but it’s told with such a frenetic style that most of the meaning and the storytelling get lost midst the blur of images and scenes that we’re forced to endure in the fast moving film.

Eugene (Finn Cole) is a man searching to fill the void that has encompassed him life after living his entire live (since 5) fatherless and directionless. His only connection with his father was the man sending him a postcard stating he had found “the eye of god” on the Gulf of Mexico coast line, and Finn is obsessed with finding his father and finding the treasure that his father found, only for a down turned economy and dustbowl of an environment that he’s living in in the old (ish) west make it so that he’s stuck in a dingy present with no hope of getting out of a dwindling future.

Reading pulp magazines and books keeps the man distracted from his dreary existence, where he can get lost midst the stories of gold, riches, and fame as people rise above their poverty and actually make something of themselves. He’s intrigued by a $10,000 reward for the bank robber and murderer known as Allison Wells (Margo Robbie), but of course doesn’t have the means to actually track her down. However, when he finds a wounded Allison Wells in his family barn, Eugene is enticed and intrigued by her lifestyle, and instead of turning her in, he tends to her wounds and is soon pulled into her world of crime and passion. As he mulls over the idea of joining her on her quest for crime, wealth and glory, Eugene struggles with how much he can actually sacrifice of his life to go with her, and in doing so hopefully finding his father and the eye of god in the process.

Dreamland isn’t a crime thriller/romance, even though it appears that way on the surface. Rather it’s a character study about dreams and what we’re willing to do to achieve them. The film tries to put in our heads the wrestling that takes place when we’re taken outside of the normal comfort zones and what a person is willing to sacrifice to attain those dreams, even if they’re nothing but that… dreams, in the end. For Eugene this isn’t some silly adventure, but a way to find his father and fill that void that he’s had his entire life. While there are some action scenes, they are rather stodgy and ill timed throughout the film’s moderately short run time (for the type of picture it is). The filmography also comes off as a tad frenetic and hyper active as well, which naturally makes said action scenes look a bit dizzying and off kilter.

Finn Cole has a hard time pulling off the internal struggle that Eugene needs to display to really connect with the audience, and neither can Nicolaas Zward or director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte either. The whole movie is very bland and dry to the touch, and the internal struggle that is so paramount to the telling of this story never really comes to life. Something which hampers the storytelling so badly that while I loved to watch the IDEA of the film, the actual execution and direction of the story leaves so much to desire that I felt rather gypped and cheated by the time the film ended.




Rating:

Rated R for some violence, language and sexuality/nudity




Video:

I’m kind of torn emotionally about the digital image that is Dreamland. It’s shot digitally which makes for a very pleasing looking image, but it’s also shot in the dust bowl area of America during the depression, which really begs for a gritty 35 mm image to complete the visual picture in our heads from that time period. It looks odd when seeing it for the first time, even though the image we DO see is absolutely lovely. Well, as lovely as a picture can be that is dominated by browns and dingy grays throughout. The fine details are exceptional, showing us every drop of dirt on the rough hewn clothing, and grime across the face. Colors that do show up outside of the brown deluge is sharp and deeply saturated, and the honey colored sun allows for some great looking daylight shots. There’s some mild digital noise at night along with the typical banding, but these aren’t overly obvious and don’t really detract from the lovely image.







Audio:

While not an Atmos track or 7.1 extravaganza, the 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track is more than satisfactory for the dramatic elements of the film. Action is boisterous and fills the soundstage with ample energy, and the more dramatic moments quiet down with simple front heavy dialog. However, even the more dramatic moments don’t forgo solid surround activity as the whipping wind, or rumbling of low level background dialog still fills in enough of the cracks to create an immersive sound design. Bass is punchy and powerful when needed, but also doesn’t assert itself too much except when called upon. Solid mix, may not be a powerhouse, but the film’s style doesn’t really call for that type of mix either.






Extras:

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Final Score: ​

Dreamland is an exceptionally frustrating movie. On the surface and under the surface it has a fascinating tale to tell of dreams and finding one self midst the chaos of life, but on the other hand we have direction and writing and acting that are so exceptionally underwhelming that they hamper any efforts at telling a good story. Not to mention the film itself is told in such a dreamlike and chaotic method that understanding what is shown on screen is nigh impossible without some peyote and 3 times watching it. Poor Margot Robbie does what she can to salvage the film, but it’s too little too late. Even the great audio and video from Paramount can do little to rescue this floundering film. Personally, I would skip it entirely as there’s not much to glean from this misstep of a film.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Finn Cole, Margot Robbie, Travis Fimmel, Darby Camp, Lola Kirke, Kerry Condon
Directed by: Miles Joris-Peyrafitte
Written by: Nicolas Zwart
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French
Studio: Paramount
Rated: R
Runtime: 101 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: January 19th 2021

Recommendation: Low Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will check it out once available on amazon prime/netflix only due to Margot Robbie being in this picture.