Besotted (2001) Reviews

• An outrageously mind-trippy "outsider" film experience.

  sugar-332003-01-22

  Poor reviews almost kept me away from Besotted. Glad my curiosity got the better of me. Film is full of off-beat intelligence, sardonic wit, and unexpected twists and turns. Seems like critcs missed point of director Hardman playing smug fool in film. Brave move that seems to have been a sore point with critics, and is one of those things that kinda, hasta be understood to buy into the movie. Buy, I did. And was richly rewarded with a truly delightful film-going experience. Best for viewer to have fairly sophisticated knowledge of literary and cultural allusions to appreciate film, I'd say. Lots of very cool kookiness going on here. This film has to develop a following or it's going to be lost. And that would really bad.

• Putting the Magical in Realism

  gus-842004-04-04

  When it comes to conflating Magical and Realism, you really can't do much better than Besotted. I mean, it's possible to have a lot of Magic and not especially much Realism. Or you could have a lot of Realism and not particularly much Magic. Or you could have just a teeny weeny bit of Realism and a dash of Magic, but then that wouldn't be Besotted, now would it? This is the reason that I draw your attention to the whole Conflation thing. It's not that Magic and Realism is a zero-sum game. You can have large numbers for both parameters that, when added together, kick the rump of similar sums made for other movies.