5/16/2016

Canada at Cannes: First 'Mean Dreams' Reactions (Updated)

Nathan Morlando’s Mean
Dreams is Canada’s first feature to screen at Cannes this week. The
response is disappointing. This second feature from the director of the 2011
breakout Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangsterstars
Monsieur Lazhar’s Sophie Nélisse,
Josh Wiggins, Colm Feore, and Bill Paxton, the latter of whom is drawing
especially negative remarks for what’s said to be a brutally over-the-top
performance. (Why do we keep casting him?) The response from the film’s Sunday premiere
at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes is generally mixed with reviews generally
calling the film handsomely shot but derivative. Most reactions cite Terrence
Malick’s Badlands as an influence,
but the few reviews to emerge cite so many perceptible homages that the
derivativeness seems to be the one consensus across the board. Reactions on
social media seem stronger than those in the trades, so we’ll update this post
as the film has additional screenings at Cannes.

Variety: fatally
derivative… an unconvincing, autumn-clothed youth-in-peril thriller so in
thrall to Malick’s debut that even the cadence of its title seems a homage…. Despite
its vague U.S. setting, this Canuck-shot production functions most flatteringly
as an advertisement for the Ontario Film Commission, with the area’s
fogged-mirror lakes and rusty fall foliage providing cinematographer Steve
Cosens with his most postcard-ready shots.

The Hollywood Reporter:The acknowledged influences of Canadian director Nathan Morlando
in Mean Dreams are even higher
yardsticks: Badlands and No Country for Old Men. It's not
surprising that this Northern Gothic thriller about young lovers on the run
doesn't come close to any of those progenitors. But it does mostly keep you
watching with its somber mood and the melancholy beauty of its visuals… Despite
some excellent craft elements, this ultimately feels like the kind of
sub-Sundance fare that gets consigned to a VOD life.

Screen:There are
vague attempts at a mashed up fairytale vibe to Mean
Dreams, with Wayne as the Big Bad Wolf and Jonas and Casey as a
latterday Hansel and Gretel. One character even remarks about the trail of
crumbs they have left in their wake. That is never fully developed, and the
promise of a latter-day Badlands is
equally unfulfilled.

El antepenultimo mohicano: somewhat predictable and trite… magnificent naturalistic photography and loyalty to their humble beginnings, no gimmicks or pretentious artifice; a modesty that leads her to proclaim himself as the Badlands for teenagers.

Toronto Star:The land is strong in this film, as it was last year in Andrew
Cividino’s Sleeping Giant, set around Thunder Bay. And history also
seems to be repeating itself in the rapturous greeting here for a new
Canadian film and a fresh take on a familiar genre.

Indiewire: It's Paxton, however, who injects "Mean Dreams" with a palpable sense of menace. Scowling at Jonas whenever he catches up to him, and grinning just as creepily when he takes control, he's a terrific embodiment of the harsh world holding the film's central characters down at every turn. He's aided in that task by the movie's delicate cinematography, which oscillates from copper-tinted outdoor scenery to shadowy nighttime exchanges that oscillate from warmth to utter dread.