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SIBERIA MOVIE REVIEW
From provocative auteur Abel Ferrara (“Bad Lieutenant”, “King of New York”) comes “Siberia”, a rambling meditation on loss, regret and mortality. Maybe? We’re still not entirely sure. In his fifth collaboration with Ferrara, Willem Dafoe stars as Clint, a man who has fled his past by becoming a bartender in Siberia. As remote metaphorically as it is geographically, Siberia seems like the perfect place to hide from one’s own demons but the past has a way of finding you anyway. Haunted by hallucinations or memories (some of which aren’t even be his own) Clint goes on a sort of vision quest as he confronts his past and contemplates his future. Even by Ferrara’s own peculiar standards, this is a deliberately opaque exercise in abstract filmmaking and dream logic. Without subtitles or anything approaching a conventional narrative, the movie relies on the strength of its surreal images but is anchored by Dafoe’s committed, yet restrained performance. Our reviewers Eliot, Jordan, Marco, and Frank did their level best to figure out what, if anything, Ferrara is trying to say here and the effort almost drove them mad. Well, more mad than they already are.
**This review is a available in a longer, uncut, video version for TIME LORD subscribers and above right here**
DIRECTED BY: Abel Ferrara
STARRING: Willem Dafoe, Dounia Sichov, Simon McBurney, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Cristina Chiriac, Anna Ferrara
YOUR REVIEWERS
Eliot Nelson (Screener Squad, Staff Writer)
Soaked in the soggy rains of Seattle, Eliot developed a love of sci-fi, movies, cartoons, heavy metal, and all of geekdom. Pursuing his passion for the written word, he got his BA from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He has since worked exclusively in the foodservice industry, like any liberal arts major worth their salt. Eliot wiles away the hours listening to movie reviews, writing his epic sci-fi novel, and consuming as much media as possible. His favorite movies include The Lord of the Rings, City of God, Dawn of the Dead, and Groundhog Day. When not rambling to himself about the ineptness of entertainment executives, Eliot posts infrequently on Twitter and squawks regularly on his podcast The Debasement Tapes.
Jordan Cobb (Screener Squad)
Born with a comic book in one hand, a camera in the other, and in front of the television as WrestleMania played out, Jordan Worth Cobb was thus birthed into this crazy world. A Digital Filmmaking major from the University of Central Arkansas, Jordan has done it all in film from directing, writing, editing, and producing in addition to skills involved in film and TV criticism, journalism, and years of podcasting experience. On any given day, her ADHD riddled brain bounces focus from film to pro wrestling to TV to superheroes to noir to video games to espionage and yes, even to sports. She played little league you know. For more of this eccentric nerd, you can follow her on Twitter here and read her original writings on Deepest Corners of My Notebook.
Marco Noyola (Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Audio Editor)
By day, Marco is a mild-mannered office worker, but by night he is a mild-mannered movie watcher. He does other mild-mannered stuff too.
“You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody!”
Frank Calvillo (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)
Born and raised in South Texas, Frank currently lives in Austin and has been in love with movies ever since his father showed him some Three Stooges shorts when he was five years old. Today he loves all kinds of film, regardless of era, country, budget or genre. He believes every film has an audience and is at least one person’s favorite movie. After writing for Sight & Sound and Slackerwood, he now writes for Cinapse where his increasingly random taste in all flavors of cinema (from Rashomon to Mars Attacks!) continues to thrive. His ultimate goal is to write a script for his boyhood crush, Michelle Pfeiffer.
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