the audience applauded

Purely Joyful Movie!

Fresh and Exciting

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

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.

Two questions. Is this film any good? Easy! Yes it's a master piece!Will I enjoy it? This is much harder to answer.The plot and characters are strange, but unlike a lot of Gilliam work it is just fantastically implausible as appose to total fantasy. The story is simple and for the most part is just the main character, a young girl, playing. The girl in the movie is mesmerising! Which makes you feel a bit strange watching this in the first place. Add the scenes where the child experiences glimpses of adult life and the film becomes down right uncomfortable. The lack of progressive story line made the film feel a long watch (you don't feel like you are ever getting anywhere) but the direction of Ferland and her performance is something magical to behold.

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.

This unsettling film has strong elements of both 'Paperhouse' and 'Hound dog'. The intensity of controversial concepts will have most emotionally-healthy beings anxious to exit the room, making this an uncomfortable movie experience for the "very reserved" sort of individual. --------------------Potential Spoilers---------------------- Other than exploitative drug/alcohol abuse during the first 22 minutes of the film, there's nothing lewdly vulgar. The film whimsically tap-dances around dangerous concepts, much like a naive little child running along the edge of a pool with a pair of scissors in hand. It's nerve-wrecking to watch at times. I'm pleased with how the director was able to portray the appropriate affect during these "uncomfortable" moments, neither acquiescing to the sensitivities of critics, sexploiting, nor alienating mature viewers.There are arguably 3 separate realities being perceived by the characters in this film. There is drug-altered, mental illness, and the fantasy world of an overactive imagination. Interestingly, there are no villains in this film. There is no real protagonist other than each person's mental/emotional ordeal and the vulnerable circumstances imposed by it.------------------End Potential Spoilers-------------------This is a thinking-person's movie best suited to objective viewers who are keen analyzers. It's not great casual viewing and it certainly isn't a feel-good film. It's not your typical Hollywood fare, but gladly it's not obscure or boring. The sets are great, the pacing is mildly tedious at times, but not a big task. I have no complaints about anyone's performance, they are all equally commendable. A special commendation should go to young Ferland for tackling such "grown-up" material.