Keyhole

Somebody asked me what this movie was about, and I had a terrible time trying to explain it. I couldn't be sure that my basic summary even close to accurate, and I couldn't be sure that I was summarizing the right narrative arc of the movie. It's too opaque. It's not that I don't understand it. It's just that understanding the movie in the moment requires cognitive leaps of faith, and in retrospect I can't really tell if my leaps were correct or not. I kinda get it, I didn't really enjoy it.

As a Maddin fan I feel deeply dissapointed :(

Maddin nooooooo don't do digital it doesn't fit yr aesthetic nooooooo!

I dunno if it's the fact I haven't seen a Maddin in a while and I don't like him anymore or is it just this film that's annoying? Luv u Kevin McDonald

Star Rating: ★★★★

Maddening, convoluted, sketchy in more than a few areas, but such an engaging experience. Jason Patric is very, very good.

I'm a fan of silent movies, and I understand Maddin's attempt to reproduce the feel in his movies, but I don't know how he can get away with putting out crap like this. It's badly written, what seems like intentionally bad acting, and simply horrible direction. There's a planet where people appreciate Maddin, but it's not Earth.

Pure Maddin-ess

Not completely unbearable, but I don't think I'd watch it again. Maddin definitely has a way with establishing atmosphere, but atmosphere isn't everything. The dialogue is patchy, the acting is (more often than not) stiff, and, occasionally, it seems to be weird only for the sake of being weird. Maybe it takes more than one viewing to fully grasp it, but I just don't think I have the patience for that.

Initially, my reaction to this was an untranscribable groan, but...it's worthy of more than that. Some nice b&w noir cinematography, some good noirish lines, solid performances--namely Jason Patric and Udo Kier--and Jason Staczek's fantastic score. But the story is an incoherent mash-up of film noir and ghost story, achingly dull and totally lacking in chills or suspense. It's clearly the film Guy Maddin wanted to make, but why he wanted to make it baffles me. This is my first Guy Maddin film.

Mostly senseless and thus free of impact. The zaniness of its content is far from justified. The film's connections to Homer's Odyssey don't illuminate either work. The narration doesn't work, nor does the overbearing score. Dialogue frequently gets lost in the sound mix. The camerawork and editing is overenthusiastic. I could go on. It doesn't make sense to me that someone with twenty-five years of filmmaking experience would do something like this.

"A night of reckoning by a hoodlum in his haunted former home is a more sober and remote Freudian farrago than one expects from Guy Maddin." - Bill Weber

subat 12, if2012, reha erdem ile ayni salonda & Keyhole, Maddin sinemasinin tum gorsel ozelliklerini barindiriyor. Yine fazla kisisel ama bu sefer fazla cok fazla yorucu. Bu film, Maddin'in icindeki her seyi kusmus oldugu bir film. Bir ev icinde kalbe yapilan yolculuk-metafor bombardimani. Bas agritici.