Beyond the Black Rainbow [Canada, 2010]

Nine Things About the Movie Beyond the Black Rainbow

1. There are four kinds of drug movies:

a) movies about how terrible drugs are - most movies are of this type.

b) movies that show drugs are funny and harmless - these are the weed movies like “Friday” and “Pineapple Express”.

c) movies that can only really be appreciated if you are on drugs - movies like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, “Brazil”, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, or “Apocalypse Now”..

d) then there is the most rare movie of all - the movie that is itself a drug. These are movies that try to cause you to feel the same way that a psychedelic experience will.

2. This movie is in the last category. There is no way to describe this movie in regular language. Combining Kubrick, Cronenberg, Lynch, Burroughs, and Lovecraft, this isn't even really a movie by traditional standards, but an experiment in using cinema to alter consciousness.

3. The director himself called this a “trance film”, and downplayed the actual story for an atmospheric and dream-like experience.

4. It's set in 1983, but the soul of the film is locked in an acid-induced fever dream from 1965. The plot, if it matters, is about a telepathic girl held against her will in a bizarre hospital, while her doctor does strange things with drugs and a glowing crystal in an attempt to find ultimate reality. Or something like that.

5. The movie shows the dark side of the hippy movement. While trying to bring peace and light to the world, the movie argues that hippies did just the opposite, causing people to go too far in their quest for inner peace - whether it was from drugs or occult games. The Balance was upset.

6. There is not much violence, and even less sex, in this film. This film is concerned with issues far beyond such mundane dramas. For example, if you don’t get the reference that the movie’s drugs are provided by a pharmacy named “Benway”... well, then you can’t fully appreciate what the movie is reaching for. I’m sorry.

7.The film uses amazing old-school visuals and mesmerising soundscapes to make the viewer feel... weird. Trippy. Comfortably uncomfortable. The movie exterminates rational thought. Some people will understand this. Some won’t.

8. I’ve seen the film more than once, and each time I swear they changed the movie and added in scenes that weren’t there before.

9. I don’t need to tell you if you should watch this movie - you already know by the time you’ve read this far .If you are questioning whether this movie is for you… well, then it’s probably not.