Rhinoceros Eyes

From the first frame to the last I was completely caught up in the unique visual world created by first time director Aaron Woodley. The dark, cluttered prop house where the majority of the film takes place is a nostalgic and otherworldly cave of magic and threat. It is the home to childlike Chep, an employee who rarely leaves except to immerse himself in old films at the local cinema. When a production designer named Fran enters the prop house looking for a pair of genuine rhinoceros eyes, Chep is instantly smitten.

This film is rich in mood and atmosphere. It also has some great laughs and offbeat characters that are genuinely intriguing and not just annoyingly "quirky". The film is amazing to look at and there is even some creepy stop animation. But it is Chep who is the heart and soul of the film. Proving that he is more than just a pretty face, Michael Pitt delivers a heart breaking performance as the sweet and self conscious, reclusive who becomes increasingly desperate to please Fran and increasingly delusional about the nature of their relationship.

Being cool, funny, creepy and touching all at once can't be easy but Rhinoceros Eyes is all of those things and more - a cult classic for the future.

This is a seriously cool psyched out movie. Like some hybrid of Cronenberg Lynch and.well someone else with a great sense of humor. As someone once said to Cronenberg `you gotta take this movie to a shrink'. Rhino eyes is a case in point. The film is almost like some kind of psychological case study. Theres Chep - his ego, alter ego and ID - Masks, talking animated objects, a can-can dancing geriatric amputee and men dressed as Gorillas .

Michael Pitt is totally captivating as Chep who practically lives in a prophouse, eats, drinks and sleeps the place. When femme fatale Fran enters his life and sends him on expeditions to get more strange props for her, he starts discovering as the audience that theres a dangerously fine line between what's real and what's not. Then a cop starts investigating and pushes the reality/fanasty factor to stratispheric heights.

The whole thing plays like some ironic version of Homers Odessey journeyed inwards into the workings of the mind.

Awesome. The cinematography is amazing and makes the whole fantasy/reality thing work on so many levels. If you liked Donnie Darko, you' love Rhino. Oh yeah, and it's funny funny. I said that already, right!!

The movie follows a young man who lives in a prop store; he is the one who goes to fetch every obscure prop that a film maker or theater worker could want. From the first minute, strange props are being requested and our protagonist knows exactly where each one is in the store. His employers are a crew of misfits and hangers on who don't seem to find any of it strange, even when a detective shows up to investigate the theft of odd props; the thought that a real policeman would waste his time looking for these worthless items is a laugh in itself.

In any case, the film is funny in that bizarre, otherworldly type of way. It's not the normal comedy, that's for sure. No one in the movie has a normal reaction to anything, and predictability is thrown out the window. You never know where this will go next, from talking dolls to fanboy detectives, strangeness is the word of the day.

It all hangs together, from one scene to the next, without losing it's basic deadpan portrayal. None of the characters see anything strange going on, and that's one of the most enjoyable parts of the movie.

If you like your comedy bizarre, this one's for you. Fans of Fargo, Svidd Neger, any of the Kaurismaki movies, or cult films like Repo Man will enjoy this.

As one of the 6 films I had a chance to see at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival, it would have to be at the bottom of my list of recommendations. Slow doesn't begin to describe this somewhat "inspired" tale of a prop-shop worker named Chep (Pitt). Chep himself is a bit slow and experiencing some fantastical delusions. I felt like most of the movie, revolving around the search for some bizaar props, was filmed in ultra slo-mo. The dialouge was poorly timed, the acting was so muted it became painful (with the exception of supporting player Victor Ertmanis as "Sweets") to watch and the end so anti-climatic and directionless, I wondered how I would get those 90 minutes of my life back. I have read it compared to "Donnie Darko" and after seeing it, the only way that comparison works is that both carry a emotionally tortured lead characters. Pitt seems to summon more of a Giovanni Ribisi in "The Other Sister" (quietly endearing), than Jake Gyllenhaal in "Donnie Darko" (emotionally complex).

Without being to harsh, Paige Turco as the object of Chep's affections is a total casting zero. It's not terrible, but not memorable. Hopefully first time director Aaron Woodley will step back a bit from his attempts to be so "indie profound" in his next project.

I was looking forward to this feature, and I took time off work, headed out and fought traffic to get to see it on the big screen at Madstone-- as in Madstone Theaters, the exhibition arm of Madstone Films, which was responsible for Rhinoceros Eyes.

After watching it I came back and reread the comments and looked at the user votes again. Somehow these people must have seen a different item than the Rhinoceros Eyes I saw-- even though the cast and crew lists matched, the comments didn't jibe with what I saw. The clarity, content, and tonal range of the image was pathetic; what could have been an astounding set was crunched by some capture method or seriously degraded in post and turned into. . . into this, whatever it was. The lighting may have been some of the worst I have seen on a large screen, but even so, the image on the screen far outshone the story. At least, they called it a story, even though it was missing major elements, didn't really make sense, lacked continuity, refused to actually go anywhere, or come to a conclusion. One of the supporting characters seems to be smoking a lot of weed during this production; perhaps he was not the only one.

Maybe, just maybe we have a new generation of video only kids who don't know colors, or contrast ranges, the importance of a storyline-- a plot-- or any of the other things that make up a modern "movie." That is the only reason I can see anyone allowing the public to see this; the makers just don't know better.

This hurt. It comes off as a couple of kids, a camcorder, a great location, lousy lighting, half a story, and some actors who really, really tried.

The actors have my most profound sympathy. .