Beyond the Black Review

Beyond the Black Rainbow ~ Review ~

Magnolia Pictures's sub-branch Magnet Releasing is known for picking out unique, bizarre, & sometimes risky films for their catalogue. This film is the most bizarre…no not the most bizarre film in the Magnet catalogue although that is true I think the most bizarre film I've actually sat through without cringing. 

 . . . . The movie started at 7:30 . . . . 

At the beginning of my evening I'd just got off work, went to McDonalds, grabbed a quick burger, hit up my apartment, got a shower, threw on my clothes, and headed toward the 'Silent Movie Theatre' here in Los Angeles for the screening. I dumbly forgot to check the Hollywood Bowl schedule and went up Cahuenga through to Highland Avenue. An absolute nightmare of slow moving traffic which eventually cleared after about 15mins. Then I reached the theatre and the lot for the theatre next to it was full…so I decided to street park with about 11 minutes until the film started. 

I parked and double checked my car, it was slightly crooked, but I thought I'd buy a ticket then run back to adjust it. "SOLD OUT!!!" (And with the final chance to see the director speak in front of the film, why not, some buzz had been building over this picture after all) There was a man scalping tickets, but I didn't have any cash, and there was a stand-bye waiting list, which I waited on.

And now the amazing part. I got in for free! A man had put two tickets on hold one for him and his friend who didn't show up . . . so he kindly offered me a ticket. God I do love this town sometimes. 

I missed the director speaking, I had to pee, and didn't want to miss the movie see. 

I sat in the back of the theatre in a fold-out chair, crowded & awkward, smelling like stale, stale, stale, popcorn, and the room slightly warmer because of the crowd with a cool breeze shooting behind me from the theatre door. 

I'm not going to attempt to describe the plot. Just watch the trailer…it's basically like that. A series of bizarre vignettes with a loose plot about a drugged up young girl trying to escape and being studied attached. 

In this theatre I felt like I truly was in a movie experience like being in the historic Elgin theatre in NY the first time they played Eraserhead. Would drugs enhance this movie experience? I have no idea. Werner Herzog said that we are truly starving for new images after seeing this film I think I'm sated for a while. It's truly like nothing I've ever seen in look, design, sound, editing, performance, and execution. It would be like if Cronenberg directed Altered States with a slower pace than expected and not as good as you would expect, yet still satisfying somehow. It's a film so slowly paced and bizarre that the little moments of realism or extremely over the top scenes stick out like gems amid the rest of the film. 

 This film feels like it was made in 1983 with the spirt of the 1970's experimental filmmaking. It's both a blessing and a curse for this one. 

On the thought provoking 'What the fuck was that' mulling in my brain ride home I decided that I liked it. 

And as weird as this film was in a crowded theatre I think only 4 people left in the middle of the film and once the credits rolled so did a loud and brilliant applause. 

This film is not for the normal crowd but the crowd thirsting for something not just different but so different it seems unrecognizable next to any other film. I could classify this as a CULT film, a MIDNIGHT MOVIE, or a SCI FI throwback film…but the only genre it belongs in is truly "Beyond the Black Rainbow" a genre of one. 

Although I can't think of a soul even my friends who like so called 'out there' films that I'd recommend it to without severe hesitation.  

I couldn't begin to describe this film if I had the world's most detailed thesaurus inked with blotter acid.

It made my list Top 21 WTF Films List ! ! !