Fantastic Fest 2009

Taking a step back from the studio system, the great fantasist Terry Gilliam has created a surprisingly disturbing and emotional real-world fairy tale, a picture of childhood painted by a master craftsman but filled with all the innocence of its youthful lead. After her mother dies from a heroin overdose, Jeliza-Rose is taken from the big city to a rural farmhouse by her father. As she tries to settle into a new life in a house her father had purchased for his now-deceased mother, Jeliza- Rose’s attempts to deal with what’s happened result in increasingly odd behavior, as she begins to communicate mainly with her bodiless Barbie doll heads and Dell, a neighborhood woman who always wears a beekeeper’s veil. As she attempts to find her place in her new home and the vicious world in general, the young girl slips more and more deeply into her much-needed world of make-believe. It’s been said that Tideland is Gilliam’s least commercial film to date, and fans will note that this is a pretty strong statement. Still, the dizzying mixture of taboo themes and arresting visuals could easily render this statement true. As always, the story revolves around the not-so-smooth merging between fantasy and reality, but this is the first time that the filmmaker has pulled off his art with such stark lucidity.

“Audiences should expect, says Gilliam, “Alice in Wonderland meets Psycho”. Childhood innocence and its inevitable corruption are major themes here. But there’s much more to this film than shock tactics. Ferland’s brilliant performance captures the wonder and terror of a child cut free from adult rule, and beautiful visuals underlie some moving moments.” -(Variety)

“Making exactly the movie he wanted, Gilliam presents an American Gothic Alice in Wonderland in which little Alice is the logorrheic offspring of two flaming junkies (Jennifer Tilly and Jeff Bridges) and Wonderland is a pair of derelict Midwestern farmhouses seemingly furnished by Wisconsin cannibal Ed Gein. It will become legend.” (Village Voice)