ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW

The most interesting thing about this rather surreal and intensely weird black comedy is the fact that it was clandestinely filmed at a Disney Park without permission.  It would never have been granted anyway if writer/director Randy Moore had bothered to ask, as he so obviously hates Disney and everything it stands for.  According to Mr. Moore, Mickey Mouse actually has a very sinister agenda.

The story starts with Jim who’s just checked in to his hotel at the Theme Park to be unceremoniously fired by his boss over the phone. News he keeps from his overly anxious wife and his two small children, as it’s the start of their family vacation.  He does however behave badly with them being impatient and at times angry, and at the same time he develops an obsession with two young French girls he keeps coming across in the Park. His fantasies about the girls take the form of sinister hallucinations that make even the most innocuous rides like ‘It’s A Small World’ appear to him like a psychedelic trip.

Jim’s fixation with the girls, at the expense of making his family miserable, makes him appear more like a dirty old lecherous man, rather than one who is bitterly disappointed with the life he has been dealt. Moore's vision is that mega-corporations like Disney insure that the Jim's of the world really have no alternative than to go along with their squeaky-clean version of happiness that they peddle everywhere regardless of how they may really feel.

Despite the movie’s agenda it is however a rather thin story which has been stretched out way too long, although thankfully it does redeem itself in part at the end.  The actors do a fine job, but it’s the edgy black and white cinematography that Moore has twisted to present his warped view of Disney that is the real star here.  It is such good guerrilla filming that one of the main things you carry away from this film is that you cannot stop obsessing how on earth he and his team actually got away with shooting so much footage without being caught.

The movie premiered in Sundance and filmmakers rushed to see it and tripping over themselves to laud its virtues as everyone was convinced that it would never be legally allowed to be see the light of day. They were wrong as a silent Disney has sat by as it has it has played at Art-houses all over the US wowing audiences.

It is a very good audacious movie but I thought it never really fulfilled its potential, and it could/should have been a great one.  Still definitely worth a look especially if you share Mr Moore’s loathing of the Big Mouse and all his chums.

★★★★★★★
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