Tideland (2005)

If Raising Arizona, Pan's Labyrinth, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, and Castaway had some freaky four way sex, this would probably be their illegitimate bastard movie child. It's just a shame that it isn't as good as any of those movies. Except Castaway, but that isn't saying much. Starring a soon-to-be-jailbait kid, a lobotomized epileptic and a prosthetic Jeff Bridges, it's the kind of film that makes you wonder why you started watching it in the first place, and keeps you watching to see if it ever devolves into full-on train wreck or just skirts around the idea. The pun was unintentional. It's a fascinating movie that maintains Terry Gilliam's kung-fu grip on fantastic camerawork, but never quite coalesces into truly solid narrative till literally the last five minutes. That it remains interesting if occasionally grating throughout is to its credit. Gilliam's work has always been about keeping the audience off balance (recall his animations for Monty Python back in the day), but some stuff comes off better than others. Tideland pretty much manages to show that he's still got the gift to make a great movie, but that sadly this isn't it. Still, if you like Gilliam's work it is absolutely worth watching.

7 out of 10.