Dust Bunny
Dust Bunny. Fabulous Fairy Tale set in a Fabulous apartment building in some Fabulous fictional form of NYC. The magic of children is right up front in this entertaining little tale. It starts as a tight parlor story about a little girl afraid of a monster under her bed and spirals out to a much much more. Call outs to Tarrantino, John Wick, a touch of Big Trouble in Little China, but it's big and clear influence is Messieurs Jeunet et Caro, the opening shot being a cheeky twist on a shot through bedsprings in Delicatessen. Sophie Sloan as the little girl with a monster under her bed and a 'magic' blanket just pulls ahead of the field and runs away with the show. She is perfect here as Aurora. She's all big eyes and pigtails. She's terrified, intrigued, fascinated, confident, strong, tender and amused. The precocious cute kid in a movie is a trope for sure, but she is just absolutely outstanding, she should get an Academy Award for this performance; of course, the Academy don't roll that way. Remarkable, totally remarkable.
Our young protagonist stalks her interesting neighbor from down the hall through kaleidoscopic streets and rooftops of timeless New York. She sees things. Is she an unreliable narrator? WTF is the POV here. Her neighbor is Mads Mikkelsen. He also is perfect here. Who is he? Don't know, don't really care, he's interesting. Same with his boss(?) Sigorney Weaver. They're up to something and it may intersect with young Aurora. There's a bunch of the camera framing people with circles around their heads, halos?, maybe?
People really like Dim Sum. Chinatown figures heavily.
The wire cage Art Deco elevator is beautiful. A nod to Marc Caro designs. Fixation with shoes a la Jean-Piere Jeunet. A fun little 'dance' from Mads. A couple of circle wipes. Jaws/Tremors homage as the camera rolls behind the parquet floor mole tunneling, nice touch.
The tone is whimsical and cute, with just an edge of anxiety, because with all the hints and red herrings, we never Really Know what is actually happening. I love that. I love the confidence that writer/first time director Bryan Fuller brings to this.
David Dastmalchian, and Sheila Atim are great as more people that we are unsure of. They might be from a different movie. Which is a pretty compelling POV, because to a young girl with a monster under her bed the back stories of these people don't matter unless they are going to help her with the monster she believes is under her bed.
VFX were under budgeted, but the story outshines the compositing budget. I'll trade the pace, timing, imagination and performances over some more hours polish in a VFX house. Without a compelling story you're just pushing pixels around. Highly Recommend. Streaming somewhere.