Vincent Ward
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Filmography
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But Soul seems less about filling out details in a fictional landscape than limning a kind of cartoon humanist non-denominational cosmology — a mix of Christianity and Buddhist notions filtered through C.S. Lewis' 1945 novel The Great Divorce and Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death (1946), with a bit of What Dreams May Come (1998) psychedelic kitsch thrown in for good measure.
Some are abstract like What Dreams May Come or technical like Nine Days .
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Directed by George Nolfi
influenced by What Dreams May Come (1998)
Themes
That’s a daring choice, and it has worked in fantasy romance movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and What Dreams May Come.
In that regard, "The Adjustment Bureau" reminded me of "What Dreams May Come," in which a dead Robin Williams goes to heaven, decides he doesn't like it, and starts to complain, like a pampered celebrity in a three-star hotel.
The Lovely Bones (2009)
Directed by Peter Jackson
influenced by What Dreams May Come (1998)
Themes Visuals Plot
Remember recent movies like "What Dreams May Come" or "Constantine" that attempted to replicate visions of heaven and hell?
Particularly in contrast with the detail-rich 1970s suburbia “The Lovely Bones” depicts, its heaven is an airy play-scape that morphs in color and form like the innards of a lava lamp -- recollecting the afterlife depicted in Vincent Ward’s groundbreaking, under-seen “What Dreams May Come.”
The afterlife lends itself too easily to treacly kitsch—remember Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come ?
“The Lovely Bones,” on the other hand, is a far more delicate construction that derived most of its power not from the story it was telling, which was essentially a mash-up of “Mystic River” and “What Dreams May Come,” but from the voice that Sebold used to tell it.
The effect of it is that when Jackson isn't fucking around with his misguided period noodling, he's fucking around in a What Dreams May Come computer-generated fantasia--the two settings having no real connection to one another save their mutually ironclad dedication to avoiding anything of gravity.
Some memorables include Heaven Can Wait (1978), Made in Heaven (1987), Ghost (1990), and, earlier this year, City Of Angels .
Some memorables include Heaven Can Wait (1978), Made in Heaven (1987), Ghost (1990), and, earlier this year, City Of Angels .
Relevant and surprisingly poignant for a balls-out possession flick, Talk to Me takes that Pet Sematary level of grief and constructs an afterlife that’s eerily reminiscent of the nightmare fuel that is equal parts Hell in What Dreams May Come and “The Further” in Insidious.
Imagine Robin Williams' kaleidoscopic trip through the underworld in "What Dreams May Come," but with fiery flames as the dominant motif in a raw and gory tale of retribution.
Like Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, What Dreams May Come (title courtesy of Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy) is at its best when its characters are in Hell and at its worst when they're in Heaven.
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Directed by Travis Knight
influenced by What Dreams May Come (1998)
Plot
Characters take over as the style pulls you into their story world, archetypes with specific roles to fill in Kubo’s hero’s journey, but no one is exactly who or what they appear, similar to a technique employed in the Robin Williams’ film What Dreams May Come.
For those thinking I'm just a hardened cynic, I've enjoyed and been touched by many other films -- such as Steven Spielberg's "Always," the movie "Ghost" and the great "Heaven Can Wait" that all dealt with the afterlife in their own special ways.
Take one part "Ghost."
Worse, it fails to establish the metaphysical limits and felt experiences of the dead Chris, whereas Ghost clearly and succinctly outlined Patrick Swayze's capacities as a walking spirit.
For those thinking I'm just a hardened cynic, I've enjoyed and been touched by many other films -- such as Steven Spielberg's "Always," the movie "Ghost" and the great "Heaven Can Wait" that all dealt with the afterlife in their own special ways.
Similar to Robin Williams exploring a fantastic purgatory in What Dreams May Come, he lands in a new world with strange new powers, and those new powers, like in Gulliver’s Travels, make him a valuable and powerful commodity.
In that regard, it reminds me a bit of "What Dreams May Come," a movie about what happens after death.
Sure, it mixes "Se7en" leftovers with a dash of "The Matrix" and a taste of "What Dreams May Come", but the movie remains wildly original if only for the unique sights it packs.
In terms of visual style, The Cell is among the most innovative motion pictures since 1998's pair of Pleasantville and What Dreams May Come.
The counter-example most explicitly invited by What Dreams May Come is a simple, delightful film from Iran called Gabbeh , made in 1997.
With his follow-up feature, Mendes proves that he is more than just Hollywood’s latest boy wonder, but an impeccable stylist; watching his films is like being Robin Williams as he walks through the virtual painting in What Dreams May Come.
Max gets the chance to stand around and look authoritative, while I suspect he was wondering how he’d fallen so far from The Seventh Seal, The Exoricst, and Hannah and Her Sisters.
Both Albert and another spiritual guide played by Max von Sydowa sly if overdetermined addition to the cast, having played Jesus and the Devil in his career, as well as Death's vigorous adversary in Bergman's The Seventh Sealattempt to explain how Chris might win Annie back.
The story involves a mere mortal, Brek (Brenton Thwaites) who embarks on a What Dreams May Come -esque mission to save his busty girlfriend from the horrors of afterlife.
Robin Williams is in fine form here, restrained but passionate, as he was in The Fisher King and Good Will Hunting, movies that proved he was more than just a comedian.
One method favors the Tasmanian-devil energy and gonzo comic spirit of The Fisher King , Good Morning, Vietnam, or his voice-only work in Aladdin, the latter of which still probably counts as his best screen performance.
Smith, masterfully portraying the group’s most talented member and erstwhile leader, is particularly stuck between a rock and a hard place, and while his character Ray is the most magnetic and intelligently nuanced of the quartet he is also a stock piece of cliché who comes perilously close to being the offensive “magical negro” stereotype straight out of What Dreams May Come , The Green Mile or The Legend of Bagger Vance .
What Dreams May Come was adapted from a novel by Richard Matheson, whose fascination with higher planes of existence dates back at least as far as his script for 1957's The Incredible Shrinking Man.