Monday, July 02, 2018

Damsel in 250 Words or Less

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There's a certain corniness that's been smothered from the world as of late - it's cool to be cool, however cool is defined at that instant, and uncool, even in our time of supposed anti-fashion, is definitely not cool. So the precarious flatness that Damsel -- the new movie from the Zellner Brothers (who gifted us with Kumiko the Treasure Hunter back in 2014) -- plays with feels dangerous in its way; call it the first Normcore Western. Damsel dares to let its jokes land with a big fat thud, and definitely on purpose - its punchlines, broad as barns, just sit there baking in the desert sun so long you can't help but snigger. 

That is sometimes? Not always. Sometimes you're just left thirsty while staring at a tiny horse. The film's saving grace is Robert Pattinson, who yeehaw lil-doggies it onto the screen during the opening credits and doesn't let up, hoofing it with a slightly deranged abandon, silver-toothed and parted down the middle like a corn-starched Coen-lite maniac. His Samuel Alabaster - because this is definitely the kind of movie that would name a character a name like "Samuel Alabaster" - is a one-person hoot n' holler, a slapdash gunny-sack of just what the movie needs when it needs it. Would that it all were so simple, then.
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