Review: Visioneers

A character that has to golf because that is what people do of your stature even though they are clearly horrible at at golf- played hilariously over the top for artistic merit. We are in the hey day of the special career of Zach Galifianakis. We love him, and now our middle American relatives also love him thanks to his heavy weight performance in existing movie- The Hangover. Zach has always been cool. Like Really Cool. I'm not joking. He still will remain cool even after we are disappointed with Saturday Night Live on March 6.

What makes him cool is the commitment of his persona. I can wax intellectual all day on this, but usually that persona is relegated to perverse use of his energetic comedy, which has brought us such classic characters as the two ferns host and Tairy Greene. This is about Visioneers, where Zach undertakes and executes brilliantly an expanding role- which starts out reveling in the mundane of his normal, crushed spirit every day living , and through self realization and the burden of suppression (very hard things to portray realisticly on screen especially stretched out in a comedy) we are taken to higher places where the audience can relate its own fears and regrets and be inspired. Maybe that's too much hype up for a movie where, I feel, the newer Zach fans won't get as much. Not to sell them short, but a non thinking audience will just see this movie as random things happening, and not look at the context at what makes Visioneers a special movie. There are 'quirky' (a much buzzed about it word in 2010 Hollywod) things in this movie, but played so seriously and not a note of overt cutenees. In this world, there exists a business in the fear of exploding, which gives us such gems as a fried chicken jingle, a dream helmet with attached model planets, and books that are simply lists. Each thing when listed down, sound random, but in the context of the movie are very sincere. Visioneers have a lot of literal jokes, the whole middle finger salutes, but these are played subtly enough to enjoy. And the story can be summed up by saying 'black futuristic comedy where the lead character breaks free' but within that context lies such crushed spirit and awful yet humourous looks at that future, that the movie leaves room for a heavier message of not to be too self centered, to listen to what we really want, and to really be happy we have to try and be happy (which they do explicitly say at a point, also the life sucking corporation is named Jeffers, after poet Robinson Jeffers who they also quote, very amicably though). OK, these are dumb reviews and I jump around a lot in me making these points, and there are a lot of points to make about a movie entrenched in the depthness of finding happiness and breaking free. But I think reviews are dumb, and don't really care about making sense or about you audience. I just like being impressed. And I love when people get a chance to expand their abilities. And I love the movie Brazil, which Visioneers does a great job in finding a new vein to pump blood out of these Orwellian futures. I was saving Orwellian.

The final point here is Zach Galifianakis can make your movie work. I really can't imagine anyone else who would be able to be so grounded in the world where pretty "kooky" or "zany" things happen and make those things also seem grounded, real, and consternating. Was saving that word too. Way better than Heart Beeps, and it took a lot for me to say that.