Gilliam Returns?

There are few brilliant directors who come to mind. Someone who can bring a wealth of imagination to the screen a journey into the inner sanctum of the human soul.

Terry Gilliam is one of them.

The element of surprise still weaves into his works. Watching any of his films is like falling into a dream from which you can’t wake up. It holds you down until you’re out of breath.

It's another tour-de-force known as Tideland. Based on a novel by Mitch Cullin regarding a little girl Jeliza-Rose who slips between reality and dreams to find her own path to sanity. Perhaps she never gets there. She talks with four disembodied doll heads to find enlightening conversations. The film examines point-blank her survival through a broken world in which she must survive and the ugly Wonderland paths on which she trends.

Even in today’s culture, children are growing up faster than they should. It takes courage for a film to concentrate on this.

But what else did you expect from Terry Gilliam?

Tideland is getting a limited release in the United States. Starting tomorrow the film premieres in New York City. Then it’ll pervade other bigger cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles on Oct. 20. The film will get further limited exposure on Oct. 27. It might make it to Milwaukee and Madison.

I haven’t seen the film yet. I would like to. But chances are nil. But I’m reading several other advanced reviews blasting it already.

There are more bad than good reviews. It’s starting to worry me.

The common complaints are the fact that a smallish, elfish eleven-year-old girl cooks up a spot of cocaine for her dope-loving parents and has a sort of romantic fling with an older man.

Not the type of movie to offer during the era of hardened Republican values. With the gay marriage ban still going, people are afraid. Some of this type of thinking could actually stifle a person’s creative thoughts.

To put a cap on a person’s creative powers could upset the rhythm of filmmaking, a desire to put on celluloid the translation of innermost thoughts. Gilliam has a powerful flow of imagination. He is like a child still trapped inside an adult’s body.

Gilliam has left a weary trail of brilliant films we shouldn’t take for granted. They take you to place you sometimes don’t want to visit. But you already know what you’re getting into when you’re preparing to see a Gilliam movie such as Tideland.

So why all the fuss?

His films challenge you. They’re not a roller-coaster ride of entertainment. But a philosophy of art.

Even during his Monty Python’s Flying Circus days, Gilliam was already plundering his creative resources to come up with some madcap animated scenes to bridge together sketches. His humor has always been irreverent. Now multiply that imagination by a hundredfold and you’d get one of his crazy movies.

The problem is there’s always a backlash. Gilliam still suffers from his reputation of making a film like Brazil. His tendency to go overboard with the production and budget still carries over to this day. That’s to be expected. But people seem to crucify him for past mistakes. He still bears this burden going through the usual Hollywood bullshit.

So why not give his new film Tideland a chance? Don’t knock it down before it even gets off the poetic ground. You might be surprised. Sometimes his art can be an acquired taste. But it can have it owns rewards.

I hope you’ll give Tideland a second thought. There are not many films willing to challenge. Not all films can be filled with sunshine and crossing guards showing you the safe route. Some can be frustrating, ambiguous and on the edge of the dangerous. Perhaps there is still a morbid fascination under the camera lens. Hopefully.