The Astrologer

This is trying to do everything but doesn't know how to do anything. It's pretty much incomprehensible in large chunks (the entire run time) , the print we watched looked like it was buckling under the horrible pressure of the movie logic and tried to destroy itself. This movie is a vortex.

Have you ever seen a movie where characters are brought up and they flash to a former scene to remind the audience who it is they're talking about? This movie does that with a character that is already on screen at the time they're mentioned. Like, hey, audience, do you remember this guy you're looking at, but also from earlier? One of the most endearingly inept movies I've seen, and I've seen Channing Tatum in dramatic roles.

This was a very strange film. Primary means of keeping me interested was bewilderment. Narrative logic here is nuts, going from place to place or setting up a whole new scenario from nothing. I can't say it was successful, but would recommend as an oddity.

Comically inept, yet enigmatic and thoroughly memorable. Waving aside as many of its shortcomings as possible, maybe there's something here like The Man Who Fell To Earth, as retooled by Ken Russell: a man of miracles done in by mundane vices and his own all-too-human nature. A good metaphor, actually, for the film itself: Denney has his share of workable ideas, but he can't utilize his resources effectively, nor shoot a scene worth a damn, nor edit it into anything dynamic or even coherent.