{"id":5631,"date":"2018-06-29T06:15:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T13:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5631"},"modified":"2018-06-29T06:15:46","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T13:15:46","slug":"review-damsel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5631","title":{"rendered":"Review: DAMSEL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quirky but inconsistent, the Zellner brothers bring their off kilter brand to the Western genre with \u201cDamsel.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"When Samuel Alabaster (Robert Pattinson) arrives in the Wild West around 1870, he\u2019s a man on a mission. Awkward and clearly out of his element, it is as though he\u2019s traveled back in time. He\u2019s in pursuit of the love of his life, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska). In tow, Samuel is accompanied by a miniature horse. Using a guitar, strapped to his back, he\u2019s composed a tune to sing when he asks for Penelope\u2019s hand in marriage.<\/p>\n

\"\"Part of Samuel\u2019s plan involves paying a preacher to make the union with Penelope legal. This leads him to Parson Henry (David Zellner), who has taken up the ways of the good book after being given the tools of the trade by a disillusioned old preacher (played excellently by Robert Forster). A drunk, with an only fashionable, passing association with God, Henry goes along with Samuel\u2019s plan for the money.<\/p>\n

This is the setup for \u201cDamsel,\u201d the latest feature from Sundance darling directors David and Nathan Zellner. Their odd narrative approach last gave us the critically lauded \u201cKumiko, the Treasure Hunter.\u201d There is an audience for their decidedly different stories about troubled souls.<\/p>\n

\"\"By casting Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska, the Zellners\u2019 reach should get slightly wider. And for much of \u201cDamsel\u201d they certainly broaden their appeal. The film opens strong, with a very good performance by veteran actor Forster as a preacher, who has lost his taste for the job. And Samuel\u2019s arrival in the small, isolated town is entertaining, as he walks the adorable, tiny horse through the dusty streets.<\/p>\n

But the story gets more and more inconsistent as it progresses. Whole passages of the film are leaden and repetitive. And as Penelope takes over, proving she\u2019s no needy damsel, by waving around a bent rifle, some of the events are tough to accept as credible. But the attempt, I think, is to ground this film in reality instead of folding it into fantastical elements. It\u2019s just that the Zellners, who direct from their own script, can\u2019t seem to keep the profound portions from being undercut by the almost incomprehensible ones.<\/p>\n

\"\"Still, there are several lovely sequences at the beginning that, while worthy of a better movie, make \u201cDamsel\u201d worth seeing. One moment that warmed my heart was seeing Pattinson dancing with Wasikowska as wonderful music moves them forward. It\u2019s an honest to goodness hoedown! I instantly wanted to learn more about these two young persons. You lean in, but are ultimately given a frustrating resolution to this promising relationship.<\/p>\n

\"\"It\u2019s all part of the uncompromising story-telling commitment of the brothers Zellner. And even though \u201cDamsel\u201d might remind you of something like \u201cSlow West,\u201d it isn\u2019t nearly as good or as important as that 2015 Western gem. And yet, the Zellners have a feel for this kind of material. They captured the look, the surreal nature of moving out west, and the sadness of one man\u2019s quest to win the love of a woman who has yet to find her soul mate. It\u2019s a unique film, for sure, and one not without virtue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Zellner Brothers are back this time with Pattinson and Wasikowska in the Wild West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[514,515,516,50,517,518,64,519],"class_list":["post-5631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-damsel","tag-david-zellner","tag-mia-wasikowska","tag-movie-review","tag-nathan-zellner","tag-robert-forster","tag-robert-pattinson","tag-western","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}