DMM REVIEWS: Darren Aronofsky's THE FOUNTAIN (WITH PICS!)

I haven't seen a movie in a theatre for a while. So I was real excited to go and see Darren Aronopfsky's The Fountain this weekend. Sadly, and much to my dismay I discovered that movies in the theatre cost upwards of $10!

"I'm not paying that shit!" I said, storming out of there and straight over to Chinatown where I found a friendly old street merchant who sold me a DVD rip-off of the movie for only six dollars! Heckofa deal.

I scooted back to my place, popped in the unmarked DVD and away we were.

Darren Aronofsky's THE FOUNTAIN is one of those roller-coasters of a movie!

The version that I saw was a bit skewed. The volume was all shifty and the film clarity was often like watching a movie projected underwater. Also, the subtitles sometimes started to take over the screen in scenes with lots of dialogue...



So sometimes it was kind of hard to follow between the charismatic subtitles and the less than audible volume. But what I gathered was that The Fountain is not a movie I would recomend to my parents' generations of moviegoers. In fact, it was graphically violent and obscenely profane. Often reminding me a lot of Resovoir Dogs, or Kill Bill...


And Star Studded! let me tell you. Lots of actors I recognized from other movies were in The Fountain, and they all played their characters so brilliantly that I almost forgot they were acting. Which was quite a feet. In fact the story itself was filled with such odd characters, I would even say it was an entirely character-based script, the action just a string-along excuse to feature these eccentric oddballs who are not all bad villians, nor righteous heroes.



It was more like several episodes of a TV show thrown together. Three or four main plots interweaving occasionally and told in chapters following various low lifes, & underbelly of society types. I've never see anything so genre bending. Each chapter has sort of a winking wit about it, as if the director knew how cool this world he has created was, and was only going through with the action to let us all in on the fabulous absurdity of it.


But then, as soon as you start to think of these characters as next-door neighbor sort of people talking about cheeseburgers and footmassages, it goes and does something Really Friggin Crazy just to remind you why you thought it was cool in the first place.


Darren Aronofsky's THE FOUNTAIN is not a picture for everyone - Its definitely a glorification of sheltered little evil people, and simultaneously, like, a Comedy Gangster movie.


The film grabs you by the balls and doesn't let go until the entire 114 minutes have expired. Everyone should go see it, its probably even worth shilling out the ten bucks for a legitimate theatre experience rather than going out and buying a cheep bootleg like mine.

If you do see it, I have Just one question.

What exactly was the thing that was glowing in the suitcase? It's been buggin the hell out of me
I won't tell you anymore since I don't want to spoil this great movie for you. It's got Oscar written all over it, and I'm glad I got to see it before anyone one else.

-DMM