Movie Breakdown: Wrong (Noah)
People are doing traditional-style reviews all over the web, so we decided to try something different. In each “breakdown” we’ll take a look at what a film’s marketing lead us to believe, how the movie actually played, and then what we learned from it all. Read on!
The Impression:
Quentin Dupieux’s first film, Rubber, was about a killer tire that blew up people’s heads. There were also people, er, watching something, and some seriously meta-debate. Beyond that, whatever that might be, Rubber proved Dupieux, if perhaps not the most rounded storyteller, a new voice in visual aesthetic. Wrong, quite simply, looks to be more of the same.
The Reality:
If you hated Rubber (which many did) you aren’t going to like Wrong. Dupieux doesn’t care about traditional narrative, let alone, the rules of cinema. People die, and then come back to life; it rains inside; characters appear without any reason and leave with just as little – this isn’t Hollywood people, this is some strange corner of Quentin Dupieux’s mind that he’s dusted off for minute so we can all take a peek.
For those still interested in what the “plot” of a film like this might be, here we go: Dolph Springer (Jack Plotnick) has lost, seemingly just about everything – his dog, his job, maybe even his mind – and he’s none too happy about it. That’s it. You spend the rest of the film hanging out with Dolph (and the assortment of wacka-birds that Dupieux creates, quite effortlessly) as he yells “Paul” and searches for his dog. You don’t come to a Dupieux film for anything more than that, you come for the ten minute scene where a “top rate detective” searches for Dolph’s pooch using the final memories of Paul’s poo. You come for the strange romance that blooms between Dolph’s gardner Victor (Eric Judor) and a woman that Dolph meets over the phone. There’s themes present here, and possibly some sort of greater meaning to it all, but if you’re going in searching for those, Dupieux is going to baffle you and you’re going to leave the theater angry. Instead, just be fascinated that William Fichtner plays an acid-scarred dog psychic. Then you’ll be okay.
The Lesson:
It isn’t about understanding Wrong, it’s about enjoying Wrong.
PS – Wrong will be available on VOD tomorrow (2/1).
