Two hapless drifters, Frank and Bruno, team up with Linde to recover her land and trek across 1870's Southern Arizona to find an elusive frontier musician. The complex quantum time theory is blended with philosophical musings about art as the way we understand our history and memories, with gunfights, horses, dance halls, cacti, and saloons!
19 Sep Quantum Cowboys (2022)
Overlapping Takes
This a bit of a philosophical stew but with naive ingredients. I don’t know how many movies we’ll get with this notion of parallel universes, each of which are occupied, or can be. But set that aside and accept it as a useful trope.
In this stew is a bit of conspiracy, some hallucinogen, some Native American wisdom, and a few devices from Westerns as film and social appropriation in music. Because it is a random pile, the order I choose is that alternative universes map to alternative western films, but once a take is in the camera, futures are frozen or limited.
That one device works for me, and given the several references to New Wave, this is what I think the filmmaker intended — followed by simple sex and noir observer. That is, it uses the western business and animation effects as texture, not purposeful structure.
I am not interested in rewatching to make some sort of linear sense, as I would for Nolan, or even Primer, because I don’t think that is there. But the one new wave ‘Day for night’ idea makes it worthwhile for this film guy.
Posted in 2024
Ted’s Evaluation — 3 of 3: Worth watching.
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