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Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.
All Critics (29) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (14) | DVD (1)
There's much to admire about Panos Cosmatos' directorial debut, but the end result is admittedly not for all tastes.
The movie looks like it was lit by lava lamps, scored on Moog synthesizers, written between bong hits and acted underwater. None of this is meant as praise.
"Beyond the Black Rainbow" has a doomy, dreamy, druggy, draggy feel that's impressively sustained - until it becomes oppressive, then pointless, then laughable.
Much of the time, watching Beyond the Black Rainbow is accompanied by head scratching, but perhaps that's the point of this trippy outing.
Close-ups of a needle penetrating gnarled toes and a mutant slathered in what I choose to believe is bittersweet chocolate make as much sense as the scary drawings of angry vulvas hiding in a drawer.
This would-be cult classic is the movie equivalent of gazing at a lava lamp for nearly two hours.
For devotees of science-fiction cinema at its most synapse-frying and voluptuously horrifying, the mother lode is exactly what [writer/director Panos] Cosmatos delivers.
A film for people who might call Stalker their favorite movie of all time if only it were more opaque. So, you know, a little audience, but a passionate one.
Part Cronenberg, part Bava, and part De Palma ... It's a film that manages to feel both new and long-forgotten at the same time.
The rich and strange debut of Panos Cosmatos throbs with style and portent, which proves a winning combination even if it is somewhat light in the narrative department.
Audiences who appreciate oddball first efforts from talents such as Lynch (Eraserhead), Cronenberg (Shivers) and Jeunet (Delicatessen) will be thankful.
If you follow the muddled spacy film's logic throughout, you deserve a merit honor badge for devotion to service beyond the call of duty.
When "Beyond the Black Rainbow" was released last year, I was intrigued because the critics were saying that it was weird. But they could not articulate exactly what kind of weird, so I passed at the time. Now, after seeing the movie for myself, I understand why since even with an abdundance of disturbing imagery, it does not mean anything without any kind of context, putting it in the general neighborhood of amateur hour Cronenberg. The story such as it is concerns a clinic run by Mercurio Arboria(Scott Hylands) where Barry Nyle(Michael Rogers), a mad scientist, is performing unhealthy looking experiments on Elena(Eva Allan), a patient. Overall, the movie looks like what somebody in 1966 would think 1983 will look like.(The only cultural difference the movie points out is people being able to smoke indoors back then.) And I think I might have gone with that if not for one nightmarish image. That sole image might tie in with the movie's possible theme of the vast potential of the 60's giving way to the abyss of the 80's. Or maybe it's all about evolution. Who knows?
Super Reviewer
A mute telepathic woman is kept prisoner in a mysterious pyramid-power institute in the Reagan era in this slow paced, visually trippy pseudo-surreal sci-fi effort. The style over substance aesthetic wears a little thin by the end, but every year should feature a film explicitly designed to accompany an acid trip, and this was 2012s best option.
There are three movies that I have watched in my lifetime that I can honestly say, I have no clue what it was about, and you really need drugs to understand. "Muholland Drive", "Tree of Life", and now "Beyond the Black Rainbow" make up a trilogy of movies that will scramble your brain, leave you scratching your head, and when it's over say "Why did I watch this?" This is some psychedelic horror/drama about a crazy Dr. with a patient who has mind powers, I think. I don't know really, you just need to watch for yourself. I saw the trailer for this last month on a show called "Nothing but trailers" and thought it was the weirdest/craziest trailer I ever saw, and had to watch it. Well, I watched, and I'm still left with zero answers. The only reason I give this 2 stars is because there are 2 things about this movie I really did like, and fans of horror movies will like(won't understand, but will like). The score is probably the scariest music you will ever hear in a movie, and it's all synthesizer type music that will literally give you chills. The second, the Dr. is the creepiest character I have seen in a long time. People tend to fear what they don't understand, and in that regard, he is one scary mofo. You may not get anything in this movie, but you will be creeped out by him, I promise! If you want a movie that will creep you out, then check this out, just don't expect to know what is going on, or understand any of it. If you do get it, please hit me up and let me know, because I didn't get it at all, and I usually get these types of movies.
I could not do spoilers on this film if I wanted to - I could barely follow it. I suspect that was the whole idea of it. There were things I liked about it - I liked the look of the film, it had a very 70's feel (though it is a recent movie), I think it was set in the past, but not even sure on that, quite honestly. I kept thinking all the way through, this would make a good music video! As a movie, though, excruciatingly slow with no real payback at the end. You will likely have more questions than answers. Movie looks great and liked the soundtrack, but it's a long and frustrating two hours.
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