Critical Capsule: Wrong

I am not exactly the smartest guy on the block, far from it. This being the case, it is not uncommon for me to be unable to pick up on certain messages and meanings in some movies. In some ways I have found this to be rather freeing. For example, Wrong is a movie that comes across to me as being from way out in left field, a movie that makes little sense, yet flows perfectly well. What is writer/director Quentin Dupieux trying to say? I am really not sure, maybe give it another ten watches and I might get something.



Still, this lack of overall understanding does not prevent me from loving the film. In a way I feel freed from constraints of usual movie watching, allowing it to flow like an experience, washing over me as a pure audio/visual stream of consciousness. I have decided to approach this as an experience, there really is no other way. It does not have a traditional narrative. Things happen and you need to accept them. It is an interesting way to experience a movie.

Wrong, at it's simplest is the story of a man, Dolph (Jack Plotnick), looking for his lost dog. Along the way he meets a variety of characters both involved with and completely inconsequential to that search. Each one providing a new experience for Dolph, confusing him and even challenging his sanity, which seems to rapidly be deteriorating. It does not take very long for the movie to get strange, just watch the opening sequence as a fire fighter relives himself in the street while his companions watch and a van burns in the street. Be prepared for the strange, the unusual, and the nonsensical.

I am very hesitant to even try to talk about what goes on. It is a film that does not play by the usual rules. It sort of shows them and then proceeds to break them down and reconstruct them in a fashion that works for the dreamlike narrative that's being created. We follow Dolph and some related folks along their path towards an end that just feels right.

This movie is endearing and strange and is not concerned with narrative. I am sure there is more going under the surface and maybe one day it will all click for me. Until that happens, I will gladly watch this bizarre, existential search for a missing dog in this odd world seemingly built on non sequiturs. I feel fairly certain the dog is a metaphor and it is more a search for self identity and meaning, perhaps a spiritual journey journey out of purgatory, a navigation of the afterlife. I don't know. Like I said, I am not all that smart.

It should come as no surprise that this movie comes from the same guy who brought us Rubber. Now, if you have not seen that, you really should. Talk about a movie right out of left field, it is the story of a killer tire (yes, like a car tire). At least with Wrong he has moved onto human antagonists and protagonists.

Highly Recommended.