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Mister Lonely
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (2nd February 2009). |
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The Film
 Crafting a good movie is like trying to get a car to start in the snow, you may have something great underneath, but if you don’t keep it in the garage or keep it well maintained, then you have to brush it off, make sure the engine working and warm enough, it’s got enough gas, all the windows are brushed off, the doors aren’t frozen shut, you have the proper warm clothes to walk out to the car, and you ate a good breakfast. That attempt at metaphor is like “Mister Lonely” (2007), at first it seems like it could work (sort of), I mean it has the proper pieces to make something, but by the time you’re finished, it’s gone on so long it’s far from the original topic and honestly you’ve stopped caring about it. Michael Jackson (Diego Luna) is The film has a tendency to wander, but for the first thirty minutes it’s actually fairly funny. There’s some great looking shots of Luna dancing as Jackson in Paris, as well as a funny scene of Luna performing for a group of old people (who may or may not have been told they were going to be in a film) yelling to them about how they are gonna live forever and never die. But once the film gets going, it goes nowhere. From the arrival to the commune to the end of the film, it gets worn out fairly quickly and just kind of drifts. There’s some attempted drama and romance between Michael and Marilyn, as well as relationship drama between Marilyn and Charlie, but you kind of get lost in the mundane and loose interest in any drama that starts to form. Honestly, feels like a bunch of shorts thrown together. Parts of the film are really cool individually but as a whole I’m not sure how well it works. There’s some weird shit thrown in that definitely is there just to ask the audience “are you freaking out man?” which could be funny, like the episode of “Spaced” (1999-2001) when Bryan, Tim and Daisy went to see Vulva’s performance art, but instead it takes it self too seriously and dredges this between so many long moments that its almost there just to wake you up. Some are weird enough to be funny, others just fall terribly flat and add to the overall monotony that takes over the movie at about the half hour point. The idea of nuns skydiving, while metaphorical I guess, has nothing really to do with anything, and throws the extra half hour into the film that helps to create the sense of boredom. Overall “Mister Lonely” would have been far better broken down into a collection of shorts, even though the stories are somewhat connected, the shorts would have forced much of the unnecessary and dull parts of the film to be taken away, down to some of the more interesting and comical points of the film. There’s definitely a message, or at least an attempt, buried underneath it all, but it’s hard to really get into something metaphysical when you’re falling asleep.
Video
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the film has some moments with incredible color and contrast that shine through well, and the fairly art-oriented directing has some great visual moments even though the film overall falls boring and flat. It’s a nice transfer for a visually well put together film, the contrast and colors keep their vibrance and don’t loose the integrity that they would have with film.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 sound transfer on the film sounds good enough, the audio doesn’t exactly move completely or totally with the film and doesn’t bring out a full effect, though for the most part it’s clean and the levels come out well. The soundtrack on the film itself however helps to add to some of the monotony, so it isn’t totally effective (or super effective however you want to look at it.) Optional English and Spanish Subtitles are also included.
Extras
The DVD comes with only a couple of special features, including a making of featurette, some deleted scenes, a theatrical trailer and bonus trailers, described below. The “Making of Mister Lonely” featurette runs for 11 minutes and 58 seconds, here writer/director Harmony Korine and co-writer Avi Korine, describes how he came up with the idea of the movie, taking about how the film is essentially an assortment of ideas he had of images at different points, and trying to put the film together from there, which makes sense in terms of how the film turns out. A nice short clip, which covers a fair amount of the film with behind-the-scenes shots and footage. I’m a little amazed that there are 23 deleted scenes for a film that felt so much longer than it’s 2 hour runtime, some still have the time coding on them, but all 23 are here and here’s a run down of all of them: - “Boy on the bus” runs for 1 minute and 1 second, Michael spots a short, goofy looking kid riding the bus in paris, who then yells at him in French. - “Habib” runs for 2 minutes and 25 seconds, Michael is at a bar in Paris, buys some guy a hot dog, they talk about horse racing. - “Habib II” runs for 2 minutes and 12 seconds, Michael returns to Paris and goes to meet Habib again, he says he liked him better as Michael Jackson. - “Legless Man” runs for 1 minute and 1 second, a man with no legs comes up to the camera and gives a speech about brotherhood in Spanish. - “Megaphone Dance” runs for 30 seconds. Michael dances while Abe Lincoln headbangs with a megaphone. - “The Chapel” runs for 43 seconds. A short glimpse into the small chapel they have within the commune, which everyone seems to attend. - “Lunch” runs for 56 seconds. The commune has a group lunch, Michael and Charlie talk about the theatre. - “Priest of Vultures” runs for 3 minutes and 3 seconds. Father Umbrillo thanks the nuns for “clothing the bare asses” in decency, and rants about different spiritual metaphors. - “Ham Radio” runs for 47 seconds, Sammy Davis Jr. uses a ham radio to try and let people know about the show. - “Ham Radio II” runs for 1 minute and 18 seconds. Sammy uses the radio again to try and let people know about the show. - “Chaplin whispers to Shirley” runs for 2 minutes and 3 seconds. Charlie whispers to his daughter as she’s sleeping. - “The Joint” runs for 1 minute and 53 seconds, Sammy lights up a joint and smokes up with the Queen. - “Buckwheat Praises Jesus” runs for 1 minute and 5 seconds, Buckwheat paises jesus while taking his pony through the woods. - “Statue of liberty” runs for 36 seconds, Michael and Marilyn look at a Statue of Liberty performer. - “Fountain Jigg” runs for 3 minutes and 29 seconds. Michael sets up and performs near a fountain in Paris. - “Stooges Hula-Hoop” runs for 22 seconds, the Three Stooges hula-hoop around their nects at high speed. - “Commune Boning Montage” runs for 1 minute and 2 seconds, this deceptively titled scene is the going to sleep scene in the film, but with some extra sounds. - “Agent Speech” runs for 59 seconds, Michael talks to his agent about going to the commune. - “Nose Candy” runs for 43 seconds, the Queen complains about rehab and the need for a bump. - “My brain, I don’t think it’s normal” runs for 3 minutes and 48 seconds, Charlie and Michael talk about women and work on the theatre. - “Nothing is Good” runs for 1 minute and 20 seconds, Charlie and Michael talk about sheep. - “The Dance Montage/Big Collage Sequence” runs for 4 minute sand 44 seconds. Each of the performers gets ready for the show, preparing in their own different ways. - “Even the Autistics…” runs for 57 seconds, Father Umbrillo talks with someone trying to fly a plane. The theatrical trailer for “Mister Lonely” runs for 1 minute and 47 seconds. There are also 2 bonus trailers on the disc for: - “Beautiful Ohio” runs for 1 minute and 34 seconds. - “Savage Grace” runs for 2 minutes and 9 seconds.
Overall
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