Monday 7 March 2011

I will find the water, Beans. I promise you.

Rango (2011)
Chosen by me as I like to go to the cinema a lot.


The second Pirates of the Caribbean sequel has a lengthy sequence set in Limbo. Feeling like a Terry Gilliam scene I liked it but it was totally wrong for the movie, stopping the film dead (no pun intended) for way too long for no gain beyond some interesting visuals.
Rango is like a film long version of that scene (Verbinski rips off his own imagery explicitly for one bit also involving a character in a potential afterlife). But as the theme is a through line throughout Rango it works here much better.
Rango is filled with extraordinary images, often quite, quite beautiful but with an odd, often melancholic tone. It riffs heavily on Chinatown and many Westerns, a resonance that may be missed by a young audience but one that was certainly appreciated by me.
It's humour is peculiar, often focussed on death which gives the simple story (another take on the Three Amigos style idiots pretending to be heroes trope) a morbid depth, a sense of existential whimsy.
A great voice cast support Depp's best performance for a long time.

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