Brazil

As Terry Gilliam finally taps into his more serious side, he makes one of the weirdest films I have ever seen, Brazil, and I flipping love it. While the film certainly has its funny points, I found interest in the deeper relevance to problems in the modern workplace. Now, that sounds like a lot for a little film like this, so I’ll explain. I love Monty Python, to the point that I’m sure I have come close to memorizing the entirety of The Holy Grail. While Brazil is a completely different film, certain elements are similar, namely, the comedy. The humour in this is a perfect mix of visual and dialogue-based humour, which is something I feel is missing in cinemas currently. The setup of Brazil is bizarre, where a fly ends up in a typewriter causing a typo leading to the wrong person being charged of an extreme crime, one thing leads to another, and I’m still not quite sure what happened. However, it is clear that this film, intentionally or not, wanted to focus on the truth of the problems in the modern workplace. That’s why the environment is so cluttered and stressed, the main character often day dreams, and the setting seems so familiar. However, all of this is covered by the dull and bland use of the camera. Almost every shot is the same, and that bothered me a little bit. None of the performances in this movie are particularly memorable either, with an exception being Michael Palin, because he’s Michael Palin. Overall, if you find that watching movies to be confusing at times, definitely skip this one, it’s my second watch of this, and I have a decent grasp, but too much of this movie goes right over your head the first time to truly be appreciated. 8.6/10