Review of MirrorMask (2005) by Elisa J — 02 Aug 2008

The English language is unequal to describing the caliber of this film. Eerily beautiful, visually dark, and very, very funny in turns, with the slightest hints of delicately nonromantic romance (there's a Valentine line!) now and again, it strikes me as fresh and wondrous with each new viewing. To be fair, the first time I watched it I considered it profoundly weird - now it's dangerously close to becoming my favorite movie of all time. (I named my baby owl finches Valentine and Helena, for crying out loud!) The soundtrack is great too, particularly for the surreally lovely interpretation of "Close to You" (a la jointed mannequin-droid-women at the Dark Queen's palace)...

In short, this is one of the finest films I've ever seen and entirely worth at least 5 viewings. (Yes, 5. By the second or third time around you catch the funny lines, and by the fifth it's mind-blowing. For reals.).