DIRECTED BY: Spike Jonze
FEATURING: Max Records, voices of James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O’Hara
PLOT: A troubled, rambunctious boy travels to a land where wild beasts anoint him
their king, but discovers that socialization is a struggle even in his imagination.
WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: Jonze slips a couple of odd visions into this ersatz [...]
“I’m more interested in truth than in reality.”—Guillermo del Toro, Time Out interview
DIRECTED BY: Guillermo del Toro
FEATURING: Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones, Álex Angulo
PLOT: While blood trickles backwards from the ground into a prone girl’s nostril, a voiceover tells of a princess of the Underworld who escaped to the mortal realm and [...]
“…Gilliam fearlessly brings the logic of children’s literature to the screen. Plunging headfirst into history, myth, legend, and fairy tale, Gilliam sends his characters—a boy and six good-natured if rather larcenous little persons (i.e. seven dwarves)—careening through time-twisting interactions with Napoleon, Robin Hood, and Agamemnon (played, respectively, by Ian Holm, John Cleese, and [...]
DIRECTED BY: Daniel Barnz
FEATURING: Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson
PLOT: Adorable, precocious and angst-ridden Phoebe (Fanning) has a psychological
disorder that makes her spit on her classmates and occasionally talk to the Red Queen, among other misbehaviors; she uses her role in the school’s production of “Alice in Wonderland” as self-therapy.
WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: A [...]
“You been exploding frogs again?”–Ruth Dove
DIRECTED BY: Philip Ridley
FEATURING: Jeremy Cooper, Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan
PLOT: Over-imaginative young Seth, growing up in post-World War II rural USA, comes to believe that his widowed neighbor is actually a vampire. After his father dies in unexpected fashion, the older brother he adores returns from his military tour of the Pacific. [...]
“[Producer] Jeremy [Thomas] knew [raising money to make Tideland] would be difficult, particularly because the film is very, very weird.”–Terry Gilliam
DIRECTED BY: Terry Gilliam
FEATURING: Jodelle Ferland, Brendan Fletcher, Jeff Bridges
PLOT: Jeliza-Rose is a nine year old girl with an active imagination who is being raised by a pair of junkies. When her father spirits her [...]
