STRAWBERRY MANSION Review

At some point in the first act of this, everything clicks. It might be somewhere different for everyone...could be the licked-in credit roll, or the immediate fusion of modernity and futurism, or the pink-roomed dream sequence, or even the quiet hum of a scanner. At whichever it point is, Mansion plants its confident feet down, grabs you and Bella by the hands, and runs.

Such an insidious idea, the surveillance and tax on dreams. Private hopes and nanosecond evils overheaded by government (and worse) agencies. Audley and Birney flip it all and completely disarm the evil. Sitting mollified minds down and popping Lite-Brite helmets on everyone. Showing them a portal to something that feels futuristic and of our time. A storyline nearly parallel to the present, but not referential. Much of sci-fi tries to get to these stabilities, with few ultimately accomplishing it.

At its core, this is a sensory banquet. A film that takes serious care in what inhabits and scores the frame, every second of it. For the ears and eyes, a tone poem of CS-80 notes and colored grain. An idiosyncratic yet familiar tale of escapist love. One not down a rabbit hole or into an IBM circuit board, but hidden in a wooded land past our backyards, merely a mile or two away from everyday life. Beyond a path paved in technicolor and things left behind after alarms sound, is a mansion. A place only unimaginable if you've forgotten the splendor of dreams.

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The above was taken from my Letterboxd review.