Streaming on Netflix Now
★★1/2
Irrational anxieties, existentialism, a time-skipping narrative, and a generational metaphor for either embracing your fears or letting them overtake you… yup, Orion and the Dark was definitely written by Charlie Kaufman. For most of Orion, I was along for the ride, I liked the character of Dark, and I liked feeling Kaufman’s pen all over this. I thought the movie was heading towards subverting my expectations about what the message would be, but it doesn’t really. Embracing your fears leads to good outcomes. Cool, fine. Who could disagree? Kaufman’s curious style made me enjoy the film. I liked hearing what he felt was worth exploring in this story. Some of the specifics are interesting but I think that specificity is a bit lost by the end. The metaphoring was a bit relentless and ultimately I didn’t think it was deep enough to merit that. It just fell a little flat as a whole. Plus the animation and direction aren’t up to the same level of ambition as Kaufman’s script, leaving the film to feel quite cheap. It was fine, but it would’ve been better if DreamWorks produced it in-house and didn’t outsource it and let Netflix distribute it. It's a cute movie families with young kids will like - a great way to get introduced to Charlie Kaufman’s work!
•
Comments