A movie director is making a movie with amateur actors, and it won’t go as planned when an old fart pressures him to use well-known actors. But the amateur actors aren’t people you mess around with.
“Red Post on Escher Street” is a typical Sion Sono movie that I actually enjoyed. I have a love-hate relationship with this director, and when I say love-hate, I mean a REAL love-hate relationship! I’ve written so much about Sion Sono, so I’m not going to say more than that about the cousin of Rob Zombie. But Sion Sono has matured as a director a lot.
In “Red Post on Escher Street,” we follow people with little to no movie experience. They attend an audition where we get to know the most important characters in the movie, and they all have their stories to tell. Some are normal, some are crazier than others, and one of them is a killer. I didn’t expect anything less from Sion Sono. He just had to create some crazy and eccentric characters. But you get used to it, and they are not as annoying here as in his other movies with a lot of overacting!
But this is a charming and funny movie at times, especially towards the end when they are shooting the movie. It takes off completely, and the director loses control over the shooting, and you hope the three actors will get the fish knocked down! They didn’t deserve the roles, so you want them to get hurt badly so the amateur actors who deserve the roles will get their chance to shine.
Before that, the movie introduces the characters and their stories. I guess it can feel a little slow for some viewers, but I liked the different characters since they feel distinct from each other. Some are more interesting than others, but since they are so different, time flies fast. At least for me.
It feels like Sion Sono has somewhat made a personal movie about shooting movies and using amateur actors. He has made a lot of movies, so he has experienced a lot of things on the set. And the crazy chaos in the last act is so much fun!