Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely Fantastic

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

"Arizona Dream" is a real UFO but the kind of UFO we want to be taken to whatever universe it would lead us to. That's pure cinematic escapism, in fact, pure cinema."Arizona Dream" is strange and that might be the only objective point for critics and praises to converge to. And I've got to speak for myself, the film is so hypnotic and enchanting that I can't imagine how it can ever be criticized, so this is a positive review, yes, because Hollywood is so dry on experiences like "Arizona Dream" that such movies deserve admiration.What's the story about? It's a tale about fishes, or one fish actually, a fish and a young man named Axel (Johnny Depp) who has strange dreams involving Eskimos and again, fishes ... I could go on and on, but the point is that all the plots and subplots I will enumerate will sound disjointed while they're so connected to the whole reverie that there's a weird feeling of coherency. The film transports us from one state to another (any meaning of state) without finding us questioning the reason. It doesn't make sense yet it does in the sense that it absorbs all your senses, like a real dream would do actually.And it doesn't come as a surprise that it's Emir Kusturica, perhaps the European heir of Fellini, who could translate a dream-like vision into a quite-easy-to-follow movie. Any other director would have added some black and white photography, some hallucinatory moments, some non-sequitur elements to better highlight the pointlessness of a plot. Kusturica's directing is not only confident about our attention but attentive about our degree of involvement. It knows when it needs to focus on something tangible and meaningful, and it knows when to throw all the conventions out and float above them, when to act and when to improvise. Even dreams can be codified, even reality needs to loosen up.Again, what's the film about? Well, this is a film about relationships, some dramatic as the song says, it's about encounters that suddenly gives a total meaning to someone's life or seals the fates of others. Axel's uncle (Jerry Lewis) feels guilty for the loss of his nephew's parents and want him to work for him in his Cadillac-selling business, Elaine (Faye Dunaway) is a woman who dreams of flying, Paul (Vincent Gallo) wants to be an actor, Elaine's daughter Grace (Lily Taylor) a turtle. Realistic or crazy, we're all defined by a quest, a secret will. And these quests always find a root in the past or some dream, whether the past defines the dream or the dream shapes the future might paint the essence of the present.I don't think it goes further than that, trying to find other meanings would mean entrapping this film in a rational box while there is more to enjoy besides depth. Like a Kusturica movie, this film has a lot of music going on, a lot of accordion, a lot of dancing and loving, of passion and pathos, even jealousy and envy are powerfully conveyed by the performance of the two peripheral characters played by Taylor and Gallo, while Depp and Dunaway can abandon themselves in an ocean of lust and fully enjoy their romance until they learn to deal with the consequences. How weird that you could feel the word "deep" in Depp and Faye Dunaway almost rhymes with "fly" and "runaway".And as a leitmotif, we have this flying fish caught earlier by an Eskimo who belongs to either a dream or a reality, to say that it makes the connection between the opening scene and the rest of the film or the rest of the film with the ending scene is beside the point, if there's any, yet, there's a feeling of completeness, the idea that sometimes, we all have a vision of what we should do and what shall become of us. If the Eskimo metaphor is right, so maybe whatever the protagonists wish to happen to them after they die, will indeed happen... because maybe that's what Heaven is about.Why would Uncle Leo be so sure he'd meet Axel's parent if he died? It doesn't really matter because at that moment, we've embraced the film's magic and we believe he does. Later, Axel says to Grace that he used to love her mother but then she became a cloud he could see through and realized he loved her. Axel is crazy in the way he sticks to his vision but so does everyone. In another scene meant for laughs, Paul impersonates Cary Grant in the famous plane scene of "North by Northwest", from our perspective, with the images of the original film, it's a masterstroke of impersonation, for the audience, his motionlessness is ridiculous. Does it matter again? No. Paul believes in his talent. And Kusturica opens our eyes about it.And that might be the 'point' after all. The most remembered part from the film is the flying sequence and the unforgettable "Death Car" song from Iggy Pop and Goran Bergovic, the score contains many more haunting musical gems saying in musical language that heaven isn't in our visions, but in their fulfillments. That might be what film-making is about, it starts with a vision and the rest is just poetry in motion. Kusturica is aware than he's privileged for making such movies, which would be impossible today.But he had this luck to come at Hollywood at the right time, the right moment, to have Johnny Depp before he became a supreme movie star, Faye Dunaway who was always "in" for ambitious projects ("Mommie Dearest" was a blessing in disguise as it allowed her to work in weird but fascinating movies like this or "Barfly") and Lewis, Gallo, Taylor complete the gallery of eccentric but appealing protagonists, I mentioned Fellini but there's something weirdly Hustonian in that bunch of dreaming misfits.And something unique about Kusturica, as usual...

An Innuit hunter races his sled home with a fresh-caught halibut. This fish pervades the entire film, in real and imaginary form. Meanwhile, Axel (Johnny Depp) tags fish in New York as a naturalist's gofer.This is the sort of strange film that made Johnny Depp famous. In fact, it is arguably even ore strange because rather than the weird, dark Gothic world of Tim Burton, it is more of a surreal world where all the pieces may not necessarily even make sense. What does an Innuit have to do with a used Cadillac lot? Not much. How about Papua New Guinea and a new bride? Not much.Although this movie is apparently not well known today (2015), perhaps it should be. Depp does quite well, Jerry Lewis is expertly cruel, and Vincent Gallo steals the show with a very Quentin Tarantino-esque performance (though predating Tarantino).

If this movie were my dream, I would say that it is absolutely crazy and I wouldn't want to dream this again. Seems like this movie has a lot of story lines and I would like to say that too much. One moment I'm trying to understand one scene, but it's quite difficult because there are more than one story lines in one scene. Everything would be fine if those story lines were very clear, but they weren't. Actually, some scenes seemed silly for me. I love mind blowing movies, but this one... Yes, it is mind blowing, but I can't say that I liked it. I think it is too far from reality. Yes, this movie helped for Johnny Depp, helped to grow up like an actor, helped for his career path, but only he can say why and how, because I can't understand. Axel (Johnny Depp) was very passive character. He kept a close watch on everything. This movie balance between reality and fantasy. Personally, I prefer reality... By the way, some scenes looked unnecessary. Plot is too wide. Of course, this is my opinion. Watch this movie and make your own decision.

Life can be hard work, especially when you try to make a living counting fish, like Johnny Depp's character Axel, or selling cars, like Leo Sweetie (Jerry Lewis) and Paul Leger (Vincent Gallo), or trying to fly, like Elaine Stalker (Faye Dunaway). Bishop Milton Wright once said that if God had wanted us to fly, he would have made us birds or angels. Take it from him. He was father to Wilbur and Orville after all. In "Arizona Dream", Elaine tries to take off anyway, simply because it's her dream. Emir Kusturica more or less did the same thing, trying to make an impossible movie about Eskimos, a Cadillac dealership and the Man in the Moon. "Arizona Dream" isn't exactly a polished work of art. It's more a ragbag of ideas. But then, these ideas are among the finest you will find. So it may be a ragbag, but it's a ragbag bursting with energy and passion and fine lines and acting, as good as it gets. The cast is superb. Needless to say, Johnny Depp makes a great confused youngster, with early signs of the existential paranoia seen in "Fear and Loathing". Vincent Gallo, you've never seen him so healthy-looking and clean-cut, and chances are you won't ever again. Lili Taylor has her Parker Posey moment as pretty, amazing, self-destructive Grace, and if you don't know that's a compliment, you don't know anything. Towards the end, there is a scene that's literally to die for. Riding with his dying uncle Leo, Axel looks out the back window as the ambulance speeds away from Paul and Millie, Leo's gorgeous twenty-something bride (Paulina Porizkova). Billy Idol is singing "In the Deathcar". Caught in the nowhere land between life and death, Leo mumbles: "I gotta start climbing. It's a long way, Axel. It's a long way to the moon."