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Filmmakers Birney and Audley previously teamed for 2017’s “Sylvio,” the charming tale of a depressed gorilla working as a debt collector and talk show sidekick who yearns to express himself artistically.
#WHATS IN THAT BOX IN THE MOVIE SLEIGHT OF HAND MOVIE#
What an odd and unique movie this is, full of child-like whimsy and wonder. Poor guy just met the girl of his dreams in somebody else’s. On a routine audit, he accidentally uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy to sell advertising space inside people’s subconscious - which might explain the overly friendly guy in a Hawaiian shirt who keeps interrupting Preble’s dreams with pitches for pest control products and soda - and he also finds himself falling for a free-spirited blonde who keeps popping up in his work.

Dick, but with a wistful, romantic sensibility all its own, the film stars co-director Audley as James Preble, a mild-mannered auditor from the IRS assigned to inspect dream recordings and assess unpaid taxes from those who haven’t upgraded to the latest automated software. Something like a cross between Wes Anderson and Philip K. So goes the premise of Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley’s “ Strawberry Mansion,” a beguilingly handcrafted sci-fi adventure opening this week at the Brattle Theatre. In the future, they’ll even find a way to tax your dreams. To break the tension, a couple of the calls are played for ill-placed humor, especially one when he blows up at a female neighbor back in Michigan.Kentucker Audley in "Strawberry Mansion." (Courtesy Music Box Films) Over 94 minutes, Conroy tries to reach his family, the FBI, the State Department and a hostage crisis specialist. He manages to reach the terrorist holding him, who demands a $5 million ransom for his release. Seven coffins were created to shoot the film, one allowing the camera to spin around the prone body, and there is technically some beautiful work being done here.Ĭonroy also has a cell phone, placed in the coffin by his captors. How do we see this? He has a Zippo lighter, and later a flashlight, and cinematographer Eduard Grau and Cortes make the most of the natural lighting and close quarters. The film opens with a black screen and gradually reveals him in a pine box six feet under with a gag around his mouth.
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He plays Paul Conroy, a contract truck driver in Iraq whose convoy has been ambushed. Ryan Reynolds, covered in sweat, blood and a few days’ growth, departs dramatically from his recent romantic comedy roles. And a catchy country and western song over the end credits severely undermines the tragedy of the death we’ve just seen and is a serious misstep by the filmmakers. It feels like a disservice to people like Daniel Pearl. In fairness, Cortes and screenwriter Chris Sparling do give the film some political context, but it doesn’t carry the weight of this man’s gruesome fate or the whole awful situation in that country. It’s the tricks of the trade that make the greatest impression, not the real consequences of the suffering. Leaving a screening, an audience member was overheard describing the movie as “the bad guys” burying someone alive. But the same story could have been set anywhere that there is a deranged criminal capable of this kind of activity, but when a film like this is set in Iraq, the game changes.
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Cortes knows how to build suspense and turn the screws.

Watching this cinematic sleight of hand is unquestionably an intense, perversely enjoyable cinematic experience. As a genre piece, “Buried” will no doubt draw the curious and usual thrill-seeking crowd at the box office, and Lionsgate acquired it as the first big pickup at Sundance this year, but it is unlikely to be well-received by a more thoughtful audience. It seems disrespectful of people who actually live and die through this kind of thing. However, there is something unsettling about the whole enterprise of basing what is essentially a horror movie on a hostage situation in Iraq.

PARK CITY, Utah (Hollywood Reporter) - Shooting a whole movie about a man buried alive is undeniably an impressive cinematic feat, and director Rodrigo Cortes pulls it off with great skill. Cast member Ryan Reynolds attends the premiere of the film "The Proposal" in Los Angeles June 1, 2009.
