Paprika
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Rated: R
Cast: Megumi Hayashibara, Toru Furuya
Director: Satoshi Kon
WorkNameSort: Paprika
Our Rating: 2.50
Ever have a friend who’s always vividly detailing the content of his dreams? Those conversations are ‘ wouldn’t you agree? ‘ narcissistic and one-sided discourses. While the flying coffeepot and never-ending escalator of your friend’s nighttime visions are of interest to him, you couldn’t care less. You may have thought your disinterest was due to your inability to properly visualize the dreams in all their psychedelic detail; as Paprika proves, even when you’re able to see someone else’s dreams rendered well, they’re still pretty boring. This animated flick takes the long-lusted-after sci-fi device of a dream- watching machine and drops it (naturally) into the wrong hands. In said hands, the dreams begin infesting the real world, unleashing a chaotic parade of enormous stuffed animals, demonic dolls, undulating landscapes and other hallucinogenic nonsense. This, we’re led to believe, is bad. In reality, it’s visually fantastic, logically flawed and incredibly dull. Just like your friend’s dreams.
This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2007.