Daaaaaali!

I know Dali claims to be both a monarchist and an anarchist simultaneously, but did the younger, idealistic Dali have any different attitudes than the older, capitalist Dali? Even ancient Dali seems to be young Dali who stayed emotionally arrested until his legs gave. I know the more Dali, the better, but if each incarnation is exactly the same inside, why bother? Of course, which Dali would you lose? They are all fine Dalis, able to embrace the bombastic narcissism without it exploding into buffoonery. This is harder than it would seem, but everyone manages to keep the ham in the sandwich. Also, it is very Dali-esque, with all of the anachronisms that fly around the film like a hornet nest. That these aren’t explained makes them work all the better.

“…packed with plenty of head spinning entertainment…”

The movie seems like it is rocketing to brilliance for much of its runtime. There is an elongated dream sequence that, in the beginning, radiated with high promise. However, there is a tipping point where intriguing developments are repeated to the point that there is nothing left in the stable to beat. Then Dupieux starts sprinkling the plot line with refrains and repetitions that audiences have become numb to. The pretzel logic of the movie that Dupieux deploys catches up with itself several times, which decreases the scope needlessly. While this may have been clever while The Flash was still on the shelf, in the end, it prevents the movie from getting any further into the surreal highlands. What begins as trying to understand Dali through Dali’s perception dissolves at the end into Kids In The Hall meets Tenet.

So, in the end Daaaaaali! isn’t much of an unconventional portrait of an unconventional artist. It is more of a surreal sitcom where the wacky lead character happens to be Dali. That is not a bad thing, as this is packed with plenty of head-spinning entertainment. You may expect your head to spin harder than it does, but this ends up being more cough syrup than magic mushrooms. However, what the film lacks in revelation, it makes up for in brevity. It is so refreshing to experience a complete cinema experience in less than 90 minutes. At a hair over 70 minutes, this is the running time all indies should try to hit. Many of us rock around the clock and do not have two or more hours to spend. If your movie is shorter, it will be watched. Daaaaaali! is exactly what you are hoping for, but it will only hover a few feet off the ground instead of meeting you on the moon.