The publicity materials for Mr. Okay, a brand new surreal drama starring Crispin Glover, describes it as a “Kafkaesque nightmare,” and that is truthfully nearly as good an outline as any. We might additionally name it fantastically Lynchian, when you’ll enable one other simple, oft-used reference level. However, eh, why trouble gussying it up? It is only a bizarre film, man. However, on this case, it is a good form of bizarre — a trippy, gorgeous-looking meditation on the typically horrifying nature of existence starring certainly one of our most off-beat film stars, whose personal “on the market” inventive sensibilities make for an ideal match right here. Chances are you’ll be scratching your head by the point the credit roll, however it’ll be robust to say you did not have an fascinating time attending to them.
What Is ‘Mr. Okay’ About?
In Mr. Okay, Glover performs the titular character — a small-time magician who travels from city to city performing his act and looking for a spot on this planet. There’s a particularly efficient prologue scene the place he stands on a small stage performing some fundamental methods whereas a disinterested crowd largely ignores him. The movie then jumps ahead to Mr. Okay checking into a big, decaying lodge, the place he plans to remain only a single night time earlier than rising early within the morning to get to his subsequent present. Nonetheless, the lodge itself — and all of the odd folks in it — produce other plans for him.
The movie is purposefully fuzzy on when and the place it is set. (Everybody speaks English, however the film is a Norwegian-Belgian-Dutch co-production that was filmed within the Netherlands and is written and directed by Tallulah Hazekamp Schwab, who’s from Oslo.) At first, Mr. Okay’s efforts to depart are stymied by easy however unsolvable geometry: He cannot discover his approach again to the foyer. Limitless hallways flip again in on themselves, and he struggles to seek out himself wherever aside from again at his personal room. Something supernatural may be at play. He isn’t alone within the lodge, although. There are two nice aged women, Ruth and Sara (Fionnula Flanagan and Dearbhla Molloy), who costume alike and preserve inviting him for a cup of espresso. A complete marching band spills out of small, secret hallway doorways. There are high-class, aristocratic artists and low-class employees residing within the lodge. Ultimately, Mr. Okay finds himself taken in by the employees of the lodge’s kitchen, an enormous group of blue-collar cooks who put together eggs for breakfast daily and all bunk in the identical room, like they’re residing on the lowest deck of the Titanic.
The times go, and Mr. Okay desperately struggles to withstand falling into the routine the lodge itself has set for him. Although most residing out their lives within the lodge by no means assume to query their stations, there are some who imagine that an incredible “liberator” is destined to set them free. May Mr. Okay be that liberator? And, if that’s the case, will he preserve his sanity lengthy sufficient to seek out the escape he so desperately seeks? Issues develop extra dire (and more odd) because the story progresses. The lodge seems to be shrinking, and it is attainable one thing natural resides contained in the partitions that Mr. Okay begins marking up with chalk as he tries to map a approach out. Is he mad? Or is the lodge itself mad? In reality, the query that the film’s actually asking is: Is humanity’s very existence mad?
Mr. Okay has loads going for it, however its largest power needs to be the look of the lodge itself. The manufacturing and set design on show right here is phenomenal, because the lodge stands out as its personal character with its personal arc within the story. Close to the beginning, it feels ornate however antiquated, however because the movie progresses, the decay actually units in. Tattered inexperienced wallpaper peels off the partitions, water pipes run this manner and that, springing leaks, and the hallways change into cluttered with moss-covered furnishings. It instantly lends the movie’s weird story a sure stage of credibility and locations the viewer in a single setting that’s each unsettling and intriguing.
Previous that, the following huge piece is Glover himself, an actor who has made a profession out of taking part in peculiar characters. What’s fascinating about Mr. Okay is that, whereas this film appears very a lot aligned along with his sensibilities, Glover is definitely taking part in a little bit of a straight man right here. The state of affairs itself is what’s unfathomably bizarre — not him. Glover could not like me saying it, however Mr. Okay even has a touch of his most well-known position, George McFly, in him, as his middle-aged magician is a considerably meek man who’s uncertain of himself or his personal skills. He isn’t all the time tremendous snug in his personal pores and skin and has a tough time speaking exterior of performing fast sleight-of-hand methods for anybody who turns their consideration his approach. As he sinks deeper into the lodge’s grip and his frustration grows at his predicament, he finds a power and willpower that maybe he by no means knew was there. It is a robust, dynamic efficiency and a reminder that Glover will be certainly one of our most fascinating actors when given the prospect. The remainder of the forged is stuffed with of us who wouldn’t be acknowledged by an American viewers, however that anonymity works within the film’s favor, as actors like Jan Gunnar Røise (taking part in a younger cook dinner who befriends Mr. Okay) and Bjørn Sundquist (taking part in the kitchen’s head chef) are in a position to create characters who really feel each distinct and distinctive.
The story takes some weird turns and leans closely into its personal bizarre vibe in its last act, however what’s refreshing is that it by no means appears like a puzzle field to be solved. There are not any twists or issues to “work out.” As a substitute, Shwab’s movie merely follows Mr. Okay to the top of his journey and no matter type of escape or stark realizations are contained therein. The movie makes use of its grotesque story to place forth the notion that we’re all caught in an absurd existence we can’t escape from. The film pokes the viewers to guess on the lodge’s true nature, however, by the top (and regardless of some outlandish reveals), it appears clear that the lodge is a stand-in for all times itself. You get up, you stumble upon some folks, you do a job you in all probability hate, and you then return to mattress, solely to get up and do all of it once more the following day. That is the hell Mr. Okay finds himself caught in, and maybe it is not as unfamiliar because it first seems.
Regardless of the straightforward comparisons dropped on the high of this assessment, Mr. Okay is a troublesome movie to categorise. It is not a horror movie per se, as it is not ever actually excited about scaring its viewers. However simply calling it a “surreal drama” appears a disservice to simply how surreal issues truly get. Yeah, it is received some David Lynch-type issues happening. Suppose David Cronenberg‘s Naked Lunch or Darren Aronofsky‘s Mother! and also you’re in the proper ballpark, too. That is the realm of opulent cinematic lunacy we’re coping with right here, and Schwab, making solely her second full-length dramatic characteristic, appears like a pure at … nonetheless precisely you need to classify that style. It will not shock you that so does Glover. The top result’s a movie that actually feels prefer it has one thing to say and goes about saying it within the strangest approach attainable.
Mr. Okay had its World Premiere on the 2024 Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition.
