Movie review: Brazil (1985)

NB: this is about the European version (also labelled Director's Cut) with a 142 min runtime, see this page for notes about the different versions.

I saw this one a week ago with my mother and stepfather during Christmas holidays. Also worth mentioning is that I had already seen twice the related (kind of a spiritual sequel) Twelve Monkeys before.

I quickly fell in love with the aesthetics and humour but still found it quite disjointed, long-ish (especially the ending delirium) and bordering on nonsensical at times. It felt to me that the plot was just an afterthought, a prop to allow the cool visuals to shine.

Also, I didn't like the dream sequences very much; well, more due to their number and length than the concept itself, really.

...Yet, despite these very real complaints, the aforementioned good points are just so good and unique that I can't help but keep a very positive impression of it. The Kafkaesque universe and (as usual) al dente comedic sense from a Monty Python mixes astonishingly well with a bleakness harkening back to Soylent Green!

So, while I found Twelve Monkeys more streamlined and seamlessly assembled - more proper movie than "succession of short sketches" (like The Meaning of Life) if you will - it nevertheless deserves its cult status in my eyes.