The People Garden

The plot summary was intriguing and the film started off well. From a point though it just drifts, as if the writer and director ran out of ideas. Quite disappointing.

I saw it at BAFICI, South America's largest film festival for independent cinema in 2016. The film does not easily fit into a genre and so will not appeal to everyone. It is a little like Yorgos Lanthimos directed Lost In Translation. The film is unique in that it disguises itself as a mystery: the disappearance of a rock star during the filming of a music video in a Japanese forest. But, underneath its eerie atmosphere there is a minimalist story about loss. The film plays almost as as a haunting love song, more than a narrative story. I saw it at the same time as another Canadian indie film Les Demos Phillipe Lesage and I thought both works showed promise from their writer/directors. The good work of its protagonist, Dree Hemingway (great - granddaughter of the writer), and an unrecognizable Pamela Anderson are part of the appeal.

The People Garden is a movie with a strange, dark vibe. The atmosphere is spooky and it keeps you guessing until the end. Hovever it would be just another solid, Lynch-inspired mystery drama, without the truly excellent performance by Pamela Anderson. She really makes a difference here: still super beautiful and sexy (look for the beautiful nude scene *Thank You, Pam!*) she appears like a dark, mysterious goddess, a Fallen Muse, someone from the realm between reality a fantasy. Think "women-icons" from Felilni's masterpieces. Every scene with Pamela is magical.

A must see film for all Anderson's fans, but also for the haters. She's created a complex, super interesting character in The People Garden. An Oscar-worthy performance!

Sweetpea (Dree Hemingway) arrives in Japan to break up with her boyfriend Jamie. A stranger named Mak picks her up at the airport and leaves her at the entrance to a mysterious forest. She speaks no Japanese and is told to walk in by herself. She encounters a girl and eventually finds Jamie's film crew. Mak is there waiting. She is told that Jamie is missing and nothing seems right. Signe (Pamela Anderson) is the lead actress.

This movie starts with an intriguing premise. She has traveled halfway around the world to break up with her boyfriend. It's intriguing. She doesn't do it in text or in an email. She has to confront him face to face. For some reason, Japan's suicide forest has ignited the imagination of some movies. The problem is that they keep trying to use it in horrors and supernatural thrillers. It seems tacky and cultural ignorant. Even worst, it's lazy. The movie sets up a mood and the intriguing start. Then the movie stalls. It has no ideas. At first, the mystery of Mak hold some interest but that fades quickly. It makes no sense why Sweetpea would be so concerned about a guy whom she intends to break up with. By that point, even the initial intriguing premise is corrupted by the story. I'm not sure what filmmaker Nadia Litz is attempting. This is like a campfire ghost story which bored the kids to sleep.

When Sweetpea arrives in Japan to break things off with her rock star boyfriend, he has become "lost" in a mysterious forest while in the midst of a video shoot.

This started out okay but just turned into a movie that just drags out the inevitable. There's nothing interesting that takes place but there are a couple of scenes with a played out Pamela Anderson in them.