Strawberry Mansion

Strawberry Mansion is a surreal, romantic science fiction film that was released in 2021. Directed by Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney, the film stars Penny Fuller, Grace Glowicki, and Audley himself in the lead role. The movie borders on the edge of the surreal and metaphysical, exploring fantastical concepts that push the boundaries of genre and storytelling.

Set in a not-too-distant dystopian future in the year 2035, Strawberry Mansion introduces an absurd vision of a world where the government taxes dreams. Audley plays the role of James Preble, a mild-mannered, obedient dream auditor working for the Internal Revenue Service. Equipped with outdated equipment and retrotech, he carries out the unenviable task of recording, assessing, and taxing the dreams of people, ensuring they've not hidden any dream income.

The film turns into a labyrinth of the mind when Preble is assigned to audit the dreams of an aging eccentric artist named Bella Isadora, played by Penny Fuller. Bella is a woman with an unmatched imaginarium who has avoided having her dreams taxed for many years, letting them accumulate into an unexplored universe of subconscious creativity.

Unlike the technology-reliant world outside her doorstep, Bella's life is a comforting blend of history and the magical old world. Both her life and her dreams are filled with a touch of whimsy and nostalgia. Bella's house, the "Strawberry Mansion," gets its name from the vibrant color of its façade, stands out starkly against the bleak and austere environment of the outside world. This glorious spectacle becomes the backdrop where most of the narrative unfolds.

As James starts to sift through decades worth of dreams stored on thousands of old-fashioned VHS tapes, he discovers a vivid array of dreams in which marketing and advertising are remarkably absent. This contrasts significantly with the outside world and his own dreams which are continually infiltrated by sponsoring ads that even alter the dreamer's actions. Embarking into the depths of Bella's subconscious, he starts to confront realms of the mind that are complex, absurd, and intriguing.

Gradually, Dream Auditor Preble is drawn into Bella's dreams and inevitably becomes a part of them. As he delves deeper, he navigates through realms filled with peculiar beings, anthropomorphic creatures, surreal adventures, and eccentric spaces – a dream world derived from antique photos, old animation, toys, nature, and the fabric of forgotten corners of the mind.

It's in this wonder-filled journey that James begins to cultivate feelings for Bella, discovering a profound connection that transcends the ordinary concepts of time, aging, and reality. The younger version of Bella, played by Grace Glowicki, interacts extensively with James in the dreams, leading to a dream-reality love story that is both unique and riveting.

Strawberry Mansion doesn't shy away from using vintage and practical effects, low-fi aesthetics, wacky costume designs, and bizarre set designs to tell its peculiar, thoughtful tale. The choice of visuals lends itself to a certain handmade charm, invoking eccentric, child-like wonder, and fantasy.

Signature themes in Strawberry Mansion include the critique of invasive advertising, government surveillance, corporate influence, and the fight for private mental space. It compellingly presents how our dreams, the final confine of individuality and privacy, can be violated, asking the audience, "What if corporations could infiltrate your dreams?"

The film's way of storytelling is a heady fusion of the mundane and insane, rich with metaphors and layered narratives, combining elements of fantasy, romance, and science fiction. Across its runtime, it blurs the lines between dreams and reality and between love and memory to make it an otherworldly, visual, and narrative delight.

The performances by the actors, particularly Penny Fuller's transformation as the eccentric Bella, and Kentucker Audley's complex portrayal of the introspective dream auditor, add depth and grounding to the film's dream-y journey.

To sum it up, Strawberry Mansion weaves a dreamlike, surreal narrative centered on touching love and critical themes of personal freedom. It drenches viewers in its whimsical charm, posing questions about our society and where it's heading, all while delivering an enchanting, visual feast of the imagination. The movie is an absolute delight for the admirer of experimental cinema and surreal narratives.