DVD Review

Brand Upon the Brain! (2008)

Reviewed by Ken Tucker | Aug 08, 2008

Ken Tucker

Ken Tucker is critic-at-large for EW

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EW's GRADE

Details Rated: Unrated; DVD Release Date: Aug 12, 2008; Genres: Drama, Fantasy; With: Sullivan Brown

$USE YOUR HEAD: Sullivan Brown in Guy Maddin\'s bleak but brilliant Brand Upon the Brain! Brand Upon the Brain!, Sullivan Brown$

USE YOUR HEAD: Sullivan Brown in Guy Maddin's bleak but brilliant Brand Upon the Brain!

Another brilliant, funny, bleak work from director Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in the World): a black-and-white silent film about — well, a fictional Guy Maddin, being raised on a dreary island, becoming involved with a pair of teen detectives, and...oh, you just have to see this dreamlike creative eruption for yourself. Isabella Rossellini offers some sensuous narration; the EXTRAS include guest narrators like Laurie Anderson and Crispin Glover. There are two new Maddin shorts, plus ''97 Percent True'' — billed as a making-of, but really a hilarious, insightful interview with Maddin on how and why he branded these images upon our brains. One of the year's most enthralling DVD releases. A

Originally posted Aug 08, 2008 Published in issue #1006 Aug 15, 2008 Order article reprints

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