Escape From Tomorrow [M]

A husband and father receives the news, on his last day of family vacation at Disneyworld, that he’s been fired. Whilst he tries to not let the news ruin the day, his emotional and mental faculties, as well as his marriage, start to gradually break down as he develops an obsession with two girls on holiday, begins hallucinating on the rides, unearths unnerving ‘conspiracies’, loses his daughter twice, and contracts a mysterious flu. But is it all really happening or is it all in his head? After all, how could anything bad happen at Disneyworld? 

By far, this is one of the weirdest films that I have seen to date. The surreal and macabre offspring of Eraserhead and Brazil clothed in a chic ensemble of European cinema, maybe French or Italian. That’s what this film is. It’s beyond weird! I think critic, Matt Zoller Seitz, said it best when he described the film as “the feature film equivalent of drawing genitals on cute storybook animals.” 

Probably the most notable aspect of this movie was that it was shot entirely on location (Disneyworld and Disneyland) without permission. Rather than press charges, Disney chose to ignore the film’s existence, which I think is a smart move because it would only gain more audiences through greater public controversy and, quite frankly, the less people traumatised, disturbed, and perturbed by it, the better. Whilst it’s a clever film and a bit of a novelty in its production and distribution: the ultimate guerrilla art you could say, Escape From Tomorrow lacks cohesion, likeable characters, and any real story. Although, I do whole-heartedly proclaim that what it lacks it (to a certain extent) makes up for in weirdness and a heightened, almost sickening, sense of that temporal dislocation you feel whenever you come out from a movie. 

As I mentioned, there is really not much going on story-wise: from what I could fathom, a guy gets a call from work saying he’s fired and then something inside him snaps and he gradually goes insane over the course of the day (I would comment on the ending, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who’s interested in watching it). The running time is fleshed out with a creepy stalking of two French girls, an episode of adultery, some weird mind-reading/experimenting scene, and abduction of children as well as a ‘wicked witch’s’ tale of how she once was a ‘princess’. 

I guess what makes the entire thing so irritating and confusing is that it’s all from a single perspective: that of Jim the protagonist, and whilst the unreliable narrator is a narrative strategy that works wonderfully for films such as Black Swan or American Psycho, here there is something lacking it in. Maybe it’s because it’s hard to attach yourself to the character of Jim in the first place. Throughout the film we get the feeling that he’s a very dissatisfied man and Roy Abramsohn who plays the role, doesn’t make any effort to win out affections. 

For a movie closely associated with Disney, there is absolutely no Disney-esque, utopian sugar-coating at all and that’s what makes it truly disturbing. All the themes that it explores are very adult and even the title suggests something sinister as to the definition of ‘escape’. There are many double entendres and multiple meanings to be taken away from this film: my central one, without spelling it out entirely was, ‘no more, not another day’. But the saving grace of this film is that everyone can come up with their own conclusion and, as far as I’m concerned, none of them could ever be wrong. 

Starring Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Jack Dalton, Danielle Safady, Annet Mahendru, Lee Armstrong, Amy Lucas, and Alison Lees-Taylor, Escape From Tomorrow is a disturbing film that might make you think twice about going to the Disney theme parks if you haven’t already been (like me). Filled with horror, violence, mystery, conspiracy, and drama it’s just really really WEIRD!