Mathew's Movie Review: Brazil

I've had a fair amount of free time lately, so I've been spending a bit of it watching movies. Not just crap movies -- largely this could go hand-in-hand with "new releases" -- but unique, influential, recognized, sometimes underappreciated films that have in some way impacted the world of cinema today.

Brazil (1985) is definitely one of the most unique films that I've ever seen. Directed and co-written by Terry Gilliam (Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the Monty Python films, among others), the film takes place in a grim, industrialized retro-future, ruled by a bureaucratic, totalitarian government, similar to that of George Orwell's 1984. Instead of demonizing any of the antagonistic characters though, Gilliam and his writers have chosen to satirize them and their compulsive necessity to "do their job" and conform to the order that is being imposed on them by the unquestionable status quo of society.

The dark comedy of the material is almost hard to laugh at sometimes when you realize that even though this is meant to me an farcical exaggeration, some of the things in the film aren't too far away from the truth.

The cinematography of the film is absolutely brilliant, and that coupled with the intricately detailed and imaginative sets, your eyes will remain glue to the screen for the whole two-and-a-half hours. The style of the film borrows from a plethora of different cinema genres and melds then perfectly for the dramatic and thematic needs of the scene.

The story of the film twists and turns in many unexpected directions, facilitated by its repeated theme of redundancy and randomness, keeping the plot interesting and constantly in a state of unfolding right before you eyes up until the very end. Only a minor lag in the pacing occurs at about the 2/3rd mark, but things pick up promptly and with more intensity than before. This could even be seen as a necessary break the audience to recuperate and regain their concentration.

All-in-all this movie is absolutely SPECTAFABULAWESOME!!!!!
I give it a rating of 9.9/10!
If you haven't seen it, go rent it. If you've already seen it, rent it again. If you currently watching it, then go rent a second copy and play the two side by side, one in standard forward play, the other in reverse!

Happy film watching!