Arizona Dream (NTSC/Region 0)

"Arizona Dream" is a quirky little movie (made in 1991, released in Europe in 1993, and not in the US until 1994) directed by Emir Kusturica that starred Johnny Depp in the early part of his career, alongside veterans Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway, and rising contemporaries Lili Taylor and Vincent Gallo. The film had a very limited showing here in the States and for years went without an official US DVD release. In 2010, Warner finally came out with a US release under their Archives label, but their version is the original VHS release that inexplicably edits out 21 minutes from the original theatrical version -- what a shame. In contrast, the non-US region 0 release featured here includes the full 140-minute theater version, in 16:9 widescreen, and in English with optional subtitles. In short, this is the version to get.

The movie itself features Johnny Depp as a young man named Axel who is working for the Department of Fish and Game in New York Harbor tagging fish, but seems to yearn for some greater understanding of the world and people. His cousin Paul, played by Vincent Gallo, tricks him into paying a visit to Arizona to be the best man at the wedding of his uncle Leo, who raised him. Axel is briefly pursuaded to work in the showroom of his uncle's Cadillac lot, but is soon captivated by a visit from eccentric mother Elaine (Dunaway) and her daughter Grace (Taylor), and goes off to stay in their house in the desert. The rest of the film follows Axel's romance with the older Elaine, who longs to become untethered to the world with dreams of flying, and their mutual involvement in a love triangle of sorts with Grace, who herself dreams of and repeatedly attempts suicide. Axel tirelessly builds flying machines to help Elaine, Grace sabotages them (needlessly so, since they never work), Leo tries to rescue Axel away from them, and as Elaine becomes ever-more unhinged, Axel finds his affection transitioning from Elaine to Grace.

The overall tone is both tragic, as the characters struggle to understand and are thwarted in realizing their respective dreams, and absurdly comic, in their misguided efforts to do so. The entire film has a dream-like quality, as people sometimes find themselves levitating and Axel continues to see a flying flounder from his dream about an eskimo family depicted at the start of the movie (the film also bears the subtitle, "The Arrowtooth Waltz," named for the Arrowtooth flounder... I only wish I could get past Kusturica having the flounder flying vertically, rather than correctly on its side as a flatfish), and there are recurring dramatizations of this dream in which Lewis and Depp take on the roles. Unquestionably an indie-arthouse flick, the quirkiness of the movie's characters allow the actors to shine -- Dunaway, in a performance that she would later infamously claim was "brilliant," IS brilliant; Lewis renders an understated display of his comedic chops; Gallo gives hilarious performances renacting scenes from Raging Bull, North by Northwest, and the Godfather; Taylor is excellent as always; and Depp is wonderfully reined-in, reminscent of his role in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" There's also a cute self-referential moment when Gallo mentions Johnny Depp, with Depp sitting quietly and unphased in the background.

I don't know what 21 minutes the Warner edition edited out, but if any of this sounds like your thing (or if, like me, you saw the movie when it first came out and were dying to revisit it), you'll want this full-length version. It's an unassuming, quirky, imperfect, little masterpiece of filmmaking.

Serbian director Kusturica made this beauty of a bizarre comedy in 1993. It seems to be little known in the US, though it has some American stars. Johnny Depp was still a boyish young man then, while Faye Dunaway and Jerry Lewis were quite a bit further along in their careers.

Apart from the ubiquitous white dog and the proliferating turtles, we have a flying halibut, weight-lifting balloons, not to forget Jerry Lewis speaking a local dialect of native Alaskan people, and Lili Taylor playing the accordion for all occasions, when she is not trying to commit suicide.
Depp is the center of the tale. He works in the New York fisheries service initially, where he tags fishes. Then he moves to Arizona to be with his uncle. At first he sells cars, and then he moves in with an older woman. The couple is obsessed with flying and builds various contraptions, often sabotaged by the woman's jealous step daughter.
There is a brother to the Depp character who is into old movies and who loves to re-enact the Cary Grant scene with the crop duster in North by Northwest. One should beware what one wishes for!

Remember the other movie scene where a departing space craft flies up and away across a full moon? I had references to that scene now in two movies in a row: first in In America, by Jim Sheridan in 2004, now here. Jerry Lewis is in an ambulance after a heart attack, and on the way to the hospital, the car is seen lifting up and flying past the full moon of Arizona.
What a lovely absurd film!
I am particularly impressed by Lili Taylor and wonder why she made not more of an acting career.

Arizona Dream has to be my favorite "odd little movie that could". The first time I watched it, I became more than just a fan of Johnny. I became a lover of his courage while choosing projects. He typically does not make his decisions based on the amount of money he could earn. He waits for a script to speak to him, and picks from the heart. Though one could never be 100% sure of everything this quirky movie is trying to say... It obviously has a great deal of heart, and an over abundance of deliciously strange!

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