Do you have a taste for weird tales?
Of course you do! (It was a rhetorical question.) I share your taste, but, frankly, I can't make heads of tails out of the Strawberry Mansion trailer. But I like it.
Our own Martin Kudlac saw the entirety of the film -- not just the trailer! -- in connection with the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and his review concluded with these words:
"Despite the dystopian setting, the humorous surreal romance adventure of Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley looks like a cross-over between a Peter Pan on Molly and the myth of Endymion. Strawberry Mansion alters the notion of an adult fairy tale into therapeutic nostalgia porn." (Read his entire review here. Or read it again.)
If you think it'll help, here's the official synopsis:
"In 2035, our dreams are no longer our own--they're infused with product placement and auditors assess unpaid taxes on our most private reveries. Beleaguered taxman James Preble (Kentucker Audley) arrives at a run-down house in the countryside for a routine audit and encounters Bella Isadora (Penny Fuller), a lifelong dreamer who remains resolutely analog, circumventing the surveillance state with VHS tapes and homemade headgear. As Preble works his way through Bella's archive of the unconscious, he begins to fall in love with visions of her younger self (Grace Glowicki)."
This year, I survived tax season with my skin intact -- just barely -- but I can definitely relate to the scenario here. As of tomorrow (June 21), the film is available on DVD and Blu-ray and is also available to rent or purchase on digital. The bonus features sound pretty nifty:
-Audio Commentary with directors Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney
-Strawberry Beginnings: Making of Featurette
-Deleted & Extended Scenes
-Test Footage & Animation
-Dan Deacon Soundtrack and Music Video
-Short films by Albert Birney
-Watercolor & Collage Gallery
-Reversible jacket artwork
-Exclusive collectible trading cards
Watch the trailer below and then order your very own legal copy of Strawberry Mansion. I'm sure your taxman will thank you (?!).