Strawberry Mansion Review (Fantasia Fest 2021)

Strawberry Mansion is a 2021 feature film directed by Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney. A twisted literal dreamscape of beautifully inspired visions, Strawberry Mansion certainly comes from an inspired place, even if the story loses some steam in the final act.

Any time a film with this many fresh and original ideas comes along; it must be celebrated and this feature from Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney certainly brings a much-needed breath of fresh air into the sphere of modern cinema.

Taking cues from the likes of Futurama (ads in dreams) and a visual style that kept conjuring memories of the music video for “Peacebone,” by Animal Collective (funny enough also a creation from Baltimore) there are a lot of elements coming into play here. While these are just a few of the things that came to mind here personally, there is obviously an assortment of both borrowed and new elements all working together in unison.

Where things are just barely held together falls on the shoulders of the story, which gives enough in the first two acts to keep the mystery/tension growing, but stalls out in the final act as mentioned before. A lot of the stronger visual cues are held close until we get transported between different dreamscapes, which makes for more amazing set pieces and costume designs, but in the interim, we are left with the main character trying to escape an external conundrum
while incapacitated.

Fantasia Fest 2021’s Strawberry Mansion

The tension just doesn’t build effectively with too few cutaways to the problem at hand while trying to showcase more internal interpretations of what is going on. Things do turn around a bit more by the very end, with some solid story callbacks and a bittersweet finale that helps steer the ship in the right direction.

The acting here is solid and the production values are great, as hinted at earlier. The combination of both digital and practical effects with the incorporation of 60s technicolor style footage blends together in an amazing way. The score does a lot of really strong heavy lifting, bringing about those sweet elements in its own way, even evoking some strong emotional beats throughout.

In the end, we have a Lynchian romance drama film mixed with some strange, almost post-apocalyptic retro-futurism. Strawberry Mansion delivers some great social commentary and has some genuine levity to it all. If you feel like there aren’t any original movies anymore, then this is one that will prove that assumption very wrong.

Strawberry Mansion gets

4 terrapins out of 5

Directors-Writers: Kentucker Audley & Albert Birney

Starring: Kentucker Audley, Albert Birney, and Ephraim Birney.

For more information on Strawberry Mansion and for screening times to watch the movie, see the Fantasia Fest website. Need more recommendations on what to watch next? Check out: Long Lost / Blood Fest / Acid Rain

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Strawberry Mansion Full Movie Trailer by Music Box Films