I'm a sucker for this sort of narrative playfulness, so I fully enjoyed Slipstream. Perhaps it's best thought of as Inland Empire Lite: At half the length, it's easier going down but less filling.
Slipstream (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:9
Rotten:30
Average Rating:4.2/10
Consensus: Slipstream is a failed experiment; confusing instead of coherent.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Anthony Hopkins channels his inner David Lynch for this MULHOLLAND DRIVE-like descent into the warped mind of a Hollywood screenwriter. Felix Bonhoeffer (Hopkins) appears to be losing his grip on... Anthony Hopkins channels his inner David Lynch for this MULHOLLAND DRIVE-like descent into the warped mind of a Hollywood screenwriter. Felix Bonhoeffer (Hopkins) appears to be losing his grip on reality. After he witnesses a highway road-rage incident go deadly, Felix's world begins to spin out of control. For one thing, the characters he's written into his most recent script have begun to appear in his actual life. Two of these figures (played by Christian Slater and Jeffrey Tambor) happen to be evil hit men who have just knocked off another seemingly innocent victim (Michael Clarke Duncan). But when Slater's character drops dead on set, the maniacal studio boss (John Turturro) sends Felix to the Mojave Desert to rewrite the script and resolve the situation. Along the way, he struggles to separate reality from fiction before the two blur together to the point where he no longer knows what world he's living in. With SLIPSTREAM, Hopkins delivers a truly experimental film that will confound many viewers. By the film's conclusion, however, all of the cinematic trickery will make sense. Using a striking assault of visual and sonic tricks--quick-cutting, sound distortion, seemingly nonsensical stock footage--writer/director/composer Hopkins burrows into the mind of a man in a way that most films would never dare. The result is a confounding yet exhilarating satire of Hollywood that features standout performances from its all-star cast. [More]
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, John Turturro, Christian Slater, Stella Arroyave
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, John Turturro, Christian Slater, Stella Arroyave, Camryn Manheim, Lisa Pepper, Gavin Grazer, Michael Lerner, Fionnula Flanagan, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jeffrey Tambor
Director: Anthony Hopkins
Director: Anthony Hopkins
Screenwriter: Anthony Hopkins
Producer: Stella Arroyave, Robert Katz
Composer: Anthony Hopkins
Studio: Strand Releasing
Reviews for Slipstream
Hopkins claims it's a comedy, and perhaps John Turturro's live-action cartoon of a mogul producer suggests so, but what does it all mean? That art can be just as shallow as Hollywood?
What would have perhaps made an excellent short subject becomes a cumbersome, confusing and deeply unsatisfying mess of a vanity project.
I'm glad that Hopkins has apparently been using the bland, middlebrow stage of his acting career to experiment with massive doses of psychotropic chemicals and open the doors of perception and all that. Next time, maybe he'll just write a manifesto.
If consummate thespian Anthony Hopkins downplays, even dismisses, discussions about the “craft” of acting, then Slipstream, only the second film he’s directed, betrays evidence that it’s a subject to which he’s nevertheless given a lot of thought.
Anthony Hopkins wrote and directed Slipstream. It's a free-form, surreal meditation on stuff that, evidently, popped into Hopkins' head while he was writing.
Slipstream is an experiment in visual stream-of-consciousness, but stream-of-consciousness fares better as a literary form than a cinematic one.
Has one trick up its sleeve, and once that trick is revealed, the film collapses in on itself in a manner that will irritate more viewers than it intrigues.
Blaring its pretense to Lynch-ness, Slipstream crumbles under the weight of Hopkins's self-indulgence, yet there is some measure of sincerity to this senseless upchuck.
A visual masterpiece and an amazing achievement in cinematography and editing.
Hopkins' surreal take on the absurdist nature of movies--and reality--bears the traits of many works by actors-helmers: It's self-reflexive, whimsical in movieish way, and self-indulgent but it's never boring due to talent in front and behind the camera
Say this much for Anthony Hopkins' project: If he's going to indulge himself as a writer-director-star, it's probably better that he goes completely off the wall.
Even second-rate David Lynch and third-rate Federico Fellini is worth our attention.
The resolution ties up enough loose ends to be satisfying, yet makes you think long after you’ve left the theater.
Latest News for Slipstream
September 24, 2008:
An Audio Conversation With Anthony Hopkins: On doing Nixon, Hannibal, Hitler and Hitchcock, and what does it all mean. ![]()
More...
October 16, 2007:
Stylish attempt at Hopkins visualizing post-traumatic Hollywood syndrome, but there should be a rule that movies helmed by movie stars turned directors need to come with some sort of equivalent of the Surgeon General warning label. ![]()
More...
October 06, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
More...
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