Brand Upon The Brain! (2006)
91 %
Reviews Counted: 44 Fresh: 40 Rotten:4 Average Rating: 7.9/10
Consensus:
A bizarre yet compelling spectacle, Brand Upon the Brain! is a unique cinematic experience.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Theatrical Release: May 9, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $201,013
Synopsis: Guy Maddin (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD) directs this moving silent satire about several familes and the secrets they posess. Infused with surrealist touches, the film offers a somewhat horrific and original view on the experience of growing up.... [More]
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Starring: Isabella Rossellini, Gretchen Krich, Eric Maahs, Catherine Scharhon, Sullivan Brown
Director: Guy Maddin
Screenwriter: Guy Maddin, George Toles
Producer: Amy E. Jacobson, Gregg Lachow
Composer: Jason Staczek
Screenwriter: Guy Maddin, George Toles
Producer: Amy E. Jacobson, Gregg Lachow
Composer: Jason Staczek
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
If you are drawn to oddball films like David Lynch's Eraserhead, then you should feel at home here.
Comment
09/02/08
It is almost an unintended parody of the excesses of art house filmmaking - like something that would have shown up on Dan Akroyd's old Saturday Night Live vignette "Bad Cinema."
07/09/08
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12/01/07
The deliciously unhinged Guy Maddin makes films that are funny, sinister and mysterious at the same time.
10/04/07
Top Critic
You feel like you've stumbled across a lost treasure from some studio's vaults that was meant to be buried forever.
09/14/07
This more-than-surreal feat is swimming in winks and nods to Maddin’s influences. Moments of Bunuel, Hitchcock and Lang are everywhere.
08/30/07
Seeing is believing, and the clever Maddin understands a dimension of his medium that many of his contemporaries won't dare approach: with the right compelling images, anything is possible.
07/28/07
Top Critic
Narrated by Isabella Rossellini and enhanced by Jason Staczek's superb score, this is characteristically intense and, unlike most of Maddin's silent-movie models, frenetically edited.
07/13/07
Top Critic
Imagery, language, and emotion can be pulled apart and put back together any way you like
07/12/07
No matter how much the director disguises the tale in flickery symbolism, the emotions feel painful and personal.
06/29/07
Top Critic
exploring the phenomenon of memory with a transcendence that includes reality and fantasy with equal measure and equal importance. It is dark, it is disturbing, and yet, this is the man's genius, it is also wildly, improbably, blessedly funny
06/20/07
The casual viewer may well reject the experimentalism outright, but for those who seek more unique rewards, they're definitely here.
06/15/07
Brand Upon the Brain! is like no other movie you're likely to see this year -- or any other year. It won't be to everyone's taste. But for those who like their cinema weird, it doesn't get any weirder or more oddly fascinating than this.
06/15/07
Top Critic
Top Critic
It's all pretty amusing, and Maddin never runs short on ideas, neither narrative nor visual.
06/14/07
Captures an artist in love with his art, but not so preciously that he forgets to share the love.
06/14/07
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