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One of the most original movies I've ever seen. Funny, visually stunning, a prime example of author Neil Gaiman's style. The "Close to you" scene is a classic.

This is a very unusual movie. It, where many others have failed, captures a dream perfectly on the screen. It somehow makes sense, but is completely confusing. Some things are exactly the same as in the awake world, and other things are influenced by memories or feelings and come out contorted or just odd. Of course, parallels are drawn from Helena's life to the dream. Yet, you and Helena are not quite sure whether it is a dream, or real life.

Eternal Sunshine: Much more then a movie, very deep
MirrorMask: Visually stunning, with a touching story

Review:
MirrorMask has those faces you won't recognize and strange alice in wonderland type plot with some spectacular visuals. However even with some of the best visuals in the film there are quite a few disapointing visual moments. However it adds to a dream like state of mind. Though the accents are overdone and seem too fake to me. The acting was medocre but excellant for the actors.

Starring Stephanie Leonidas in her first film debut from the TV screen to the big screen. Working alot of mini series in TV and low beat TV series she has had a variety of acting styles to ready her for her performance and she performed wonderfully and carried the movie steady. However she is only human and manages to make some over the top mistakes from were the director settled for less just to meet a dead line probablly.

Speaking of the Director. This film is done by Dave McKean which is also on his first big time film on his standards. He has been working in filmography since his entrance into the field and has done concept art for Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkabaan. He started his career in TV just like many of his actors. Which in term is most likely is how he meet most of them. His first work was a mini-series called "Neverwhere"

Once again another television actor Jason Barry (Honor, When the sky falls) which has bounced around on the low part of the C movie totem pole for a while. He manages to climb up with his spectacular performance as Valentine in this film as one of the main characters and in at B movie level. Mabye we will see more increased quality from Jason Barry in the near future with a hopefull break with MirrorMask. He nearly stole the show from the main role. You know, because he is a very important man. He has his own tower. They just don't speak to each other.

Now Neil Gaiman is where this movie came together who has speacial thanks in the film of Dogma. Not impressed? Well how about this! Neil has wrote screenplays for "Neverwhere" (TV), "Babalyon 5" (TV), and the kicker "Princess Mononoke" (Film). He is currently working on screenplays for a new "Beowolf" film and two films called "Stardust" and "Books of Magic." However just in case you missed the connection there is he has hystory in television so he definately helped choose a selection for the cast.

Which this movie is produced by Jim Henson (We'll Lisa his daughter) film company which a relation started with the director Dave McKean with his first two films being involved with the Jim Henson company producers. Jim Henson may be walking into a re-birth age with Dave McKean and his speacial effects.

Quote:
"Hungry!"
"Still Hungry!"

Advice:
The film is a nice upcomming film with a cross between the Labrynth and Alive in Wonder Land theme and story. This film is a wonderfil which is great for children approaching teenage years (i.e. 8-10). It's watchable but it is limited to tastes. Well it's PG, I guess that explains things.

Not the best of days today (or the best of weeks, or months, or years, for that matter... ugh), but I want very badly to rate this film because it has left such a strong impression on me over these past few days after my seeing it.

Mirrormask is the years-in-the-making brainchild of Neil Gaiman, who needs no introduction, and Dave McKean, who illustrates for Neil. Lisa Henson (as in Jim Henson's daughter) told Mr. Gaiman apparently that he could make a film for $4 million. Fine, Neil said, as long as Dave can direct it. The two men both had ideas for fantasy stories involving adolescent girls, so they did what any creative minds who work together would do - they combined their stories into one... and viola! Mirrormask was born.

Mirrormask is difficult to describe without spoiling the experience, so I'll just say it is like what would happen if you meshed Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz together in a blender and tossed the 'growing up' theme of Peter Pan in with it.

If that doesn't sound like a cool idea for a movie to you, then sorry, I don't know what your problem is.

Anyway, I was very impressed with what the filmmakers were able to do with a measly $4 million budget. In fact, it's downright amazing (as in Alien 3 amazing) what they were able to do with what they had... especially given how difficult the going got.

Okay, I suppose I should give you some kind of backstory. In a nutshell: the movie is about 15-year-old Helena, whose parents run a traveling circus. She performs in it, and wants to be a normal girl. But then her mother falls ill... and Helena has a dream (or is it a dream?). In Helena's dream she visits a universe that reflects her artwork... and realizes that... well... I'll leave the story for you to figure out.

As I've said earlier, it's difficult describing just what the film is *about*.... I mean, it's like saying describing pumpkin pie as "sweet". It's an experience more than anything. And the music alone is worth buying the film for. I loved the soundtrack; it's jazzy, intriguing and fun. The art direction is great; I just wish the budget wasn't stretched so thin in this department because you do see that creative forces like the people behind this film should definitely not have been limited to the resources they were given. Take some money out of Uwe Boll's next feature and give it to misters Gaiman and McKean, please.

Mirrormask's screenplay is something I intend to get around analyzing when I see the film again; I intend to purchase it and make it mine forever. There are even some quotable lines in the screenplay, and at just the right times, like...

"we often confuse what we wish for with what is."

People are calling it a masterpiece. Others are calling it a disaster (because it was made for so cheap). I think it's hard to say. I mean, it's kind of an inbetween and it kind of depends on how you approach fantasy films. I think it's a cult classic... I really, really liked the film but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece by any means. There are people out there who called Alien 3 - another special-effects film made on a tight budget - a masterpiece; I could barely make myself sit through that film. It was messy and by the end of it the reveal didn't matter much to me. But I can see why people liked it so much, in a way, why it meant something during the time of its release.

In that same way I see my love for Mirrormask as being like that. I am one of those for whom the movie clicked, and I would recommend it to every one of you, but there's a good chance that you won't like it. If even just one of you does like the film, though, then my effort at promoting it would have been worth it.

P.S.: The girl who plays Helena is beautiful (and literally seven days older than I am; Mirrormask was shot years ago; it took a while to get the effects done, I assume). She is also in the movie "Yes", where all the dialogue (yes, all of it) is written in the Bard's own iambic pentameter. It's a film I should add to my Netflix queue very soon.

Mirrormask is the marriage of the writing of Neil Gaiman, the art of Dave McKean, and the sort of fantasy filmmaking that the Henson company was doing circa 1980's (Labyrinth, Dark Crystal). What does that all look like? Like nothing you've ever seen on film before. Taking you inside a drawn dream world of a troubled young girl, Mirrormask is an entertaining fantasy journey, a fine fairy tale, but above all, a visual revolution. The brevity of the review is quite simply a reflection of the fact that I can't even begin to describe the look of the movie, and that in no way is a bad thing.

This movie was one of the best eye-candy flicks I have seen. It comes from the creative minds of Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean and The Jim Henson Company.

MirrorMask (2005)

(****):

This is a magical film in the same styles as Burton, Gilliam, Lynch and The Wizard of Oz. Not for everyone (if you do not like the strange styles of the above mentioned directors) but this film is a great achievement and yet another example of why I think 2005 was the best year in cinema so far.

MirrorMask

I figured with names like Neil Gaiman and Jim Henson in the production label that MirrorMask would be one of the most breathtaking and eventive movies I've ever seen. This was the same feeling I got before I saw Big Fish. Unfortunatly, this movie shares another feeling that I got from watching Big Fish... Disapointment and Boredom. The first half hour is just watching a little girl draw piccasso and whining about life. By the time the movie picked up, I had already had my fill of Mirror Mask. I should have known better... Sundance filmfest always dissapoint.

Final Fantasy IIX: Advent Children

The graphics weren't as good as they first looked once I watched this on the big screen. It was like watching a really long PS2 Cinematic (kinda like playing Xenosaga :P). Though the cast is prodominatly male, hardly a single character appears that way. Of the three central villians, the leader talks and moves in an overly flamboyant and femine manner, the other breaks down and crys in ever other scene, and the third won't shut up about his damn mother. Even Cloud looks like a girl in this. The action wasn't bad but got really wattered down by the uninspired background music. Overall the story was little more than flashbacks and awkward/cheesy emotional trips. Needless to say, it was a very boring film.