Review of Munchausen

"Munchausen" is an American 17-minute short film from 2015, so it has its 5th anniverary this year and the star is of course Bonnie Bedelia, who you see on the photo and who is a Golden Gilobe nominee, probably not too far away from an oscar nomination back in the 80s. Writer and director is Ari Aster, who is of course known for Hereditary now, his first full feature film and a huge success after a series of short films including this one. It is about a mother who does not want to let her son go to college, so she poisons him that he has to stay home because he is in need of care from his mother unknowing that she is the one causing all this harm to him. It's basically two films in one, the first half is the happy way, at least for the son and how things could have turned out right for him and wrong for his mother and the second half is her reaction to the first half that is basically going on entirely in her mind and how it turns things round into unhappiness for him and happiness for her. Or does it really? Wait until the ending to find out. Karma can be rough sometimes. But sadly I must say that the first half is way too long, even if it has its moments, and so is the film in general. Even under 10 minutes would still have been too much given the plot and substance here in my opinion. It's all about the style, the lack of voices and dialogues and the dominant force of music and the sound track and how it is used frequently for exaggeration purposes. The real connection with Pixar or Up is not really one that came to my mind here. But yeah, maybe it's there. sadly, story-wise all in all I was fairly underwhelmed I must admit and I definitely wanted to like it more than I did. The acting, especially Bedelia's isn't too shabby, but it's overall not enough to let me give this one a positive recommendation. I suggest you skip the watch here. Thumbs-down.