Tideland (2005)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

As Good As It Gets

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

After spending too long trying to decide which movie to watch last night, I chose a duff called Tideland. Here we have a movie that surrounds and involves a young girl in a world of hard drugs, abusive parents, sex, death, violence and strong language - all things we should be protecting children of her age from. The director, Gilliam, clearly thought he could get away with this so long as it's acted out with playful Disney-esque music dancing away in the background and with the odd hint at humour. Humour which barely raised the corner of my mouth into a smile. No, this is deliberate and nihilistic and I can only imagine perverts or communists enjoying watching this degrading junk. You can of course try and search for an inner message if you want - but I doubt you'll make it to the end of the movie, considering how painfully boring it is. It drags on for 2 hours, I only regret that I dedicated a whole 1 hr 20 mins to this turd.

Very morbid and disturbing, but at the same time very poetic. It is kind of movie where you expect Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Barton to show up around the corner, but not enough fairytale- like or too realistic for them. Surely it is not horror, it's beautiful child drama. Whole movie is made from the point of view of 11 years old girl, so she carries whole movie on her own from the beginning till the end. And to successfully pull off that in such a young age is quite amazing.Maybe I am too biased towards this kind of movie, but in my opinion kid deserved at least nomination for Oscar. <38/10 overall 10/10 for Jodelle Ferland

It is hard to imagine Jodelle Ferland avoiding some serious mental side-effects induced by her film work (if you 've also watched Silent Hill, you know what I mean). Recuperating from the sub-par Brothers Grimm, Gilliam produces his most personal movie yet and Ferland becomes his Alice with an unforgettable complexity and power, gallantly navigating through the marvels and perils of a pretty seriously f*****d up wonderland. Nightmarish imagery and grim situations abound in this weird masterpiece and you will find yourself constantly challenged by what you see and wondering what other kind of dread is coming your way. Easily one of the most disturbing films ever and yet, strange as it may sound, lyrical and reassuring. Jeff Bridges channels The Dude through every pore.

This is a film about a prepubescent child and her imagination that must be viewed through the eyes of a prepubescent child. Furthermore, one must have appreciation for and the understanding of the capacity young children have for creative imagination if it's not stifled and crippled by adult imposed structure 24/7 about what to do, how to do it and when to do it while they're growing up. Thus we have an opportunity to experience, albeit in an abysmally poor and at times gruesome environment, the self-organizing imagination of a young girl as she copes with a world around her she cannot control much. The story is told from that perspective, even if it's not all in first person. Gilliam says as much in the short video Foreword on the DVD and Blu-ray distributions of the film. I do not know if this was in the theatrical release. Failure to do this -- viewing it as an adult -- greatly risks seeing it superficially with gross misinterpretations and missing the complete depth it contains.There is plenty of fact and fiction, with reality and fantasy. However, there are also plenty of clues, some subtle, that the young girl, Jeliza-Rose, retains full capability to distinguish between all of them, even though she consciously chooses to ignore some facts and realities because it's convenient. That she grossly misinterprets what she observes in a couple of scenes is the result of *not* being an adult and therefore does not have the knowledge and experiences required to fully understand what is occurring. Thus, she develops her own based on what she does know and has previously experienced. What would be repulsive to an adult, isn't necessarily so to a child of 9 or 10 that doesn't have the depth of understanding that would make it repulsive. This is often called "innocence" and it can sometimes spare children from trauma as their lack of comprehension about what they've observed allows it to blow by.View the film with the eyes and mind of a 10-year old child, leaving behind the worldly knowledge and experiences of an adult, and appreciate the resilient imagination and innocence of childhood as it copes with a world containing poverty, abysmal parenting, tragedy and some gruesome events, without losing basic sanity. Gets an 8/10 from me for its effectiveness in delivering that through Gilliam's direction, the cinematography and excellent portrayal of Jeliza-Rose by Jodelle Ferland, a difficult role for a child her age.