“You can’t expect all good with no gross.”
Life in Los Angeles for artist Matt Kiel has been pretty bad lately. After the end of a relationship has left them in a rather down state and a less than calculated attempt at reconciliation went unmentioned, Matt is feeling lost and aimless. Coffee with their friend Sethward, complete with stimulating conversation, is cut short when Matt is kidnapped by a rainbow vomiting unicorn, Prince Purpleton, to a land of multicolor, magickal creatures who are ruled by King Uniturius (Patton Oswalt) and Queen Junipero (Maria Bamford).
Matt returns to the real world and is still sad. They are looking for a reason to continue and once they meet a yogi with a unicorn they do feel a bit better about the future. Matt is trying to get back to that land of color and magicks, but something just isn’t working. Their friends try to guide them, but there’s something that’s blocking this world from ours.
The world of the unicorns is the happy place that existed in a relationship, once that ends, you’re exiled to the land of muted colors, rain, and feelings. Insecurities can consume a person’s brain and make them do crazy things. The end of a relationship can bring out the worse in your brain and make you want to hide away until the bad feelings go away on their own, but sometimes, if you face what’s bothering you head on and fight those demons that live inside your head, you can be the person you’re meant to become.
This film feels like a ketamine fueled fever dream you’d have after falling asleep watching Æon Flux and Ren & Stimpy for four hours straight. Bright colors with morphing visuals take you on a wild ride into the psyche of someone who is looking for reason and purpose in their life. This highly stylized, trip down the rabbit hole of depression is an acid trip metaphor about how while things might seem bleak now, that as long as you keep trying to make things better and to keep going through life, you can come out on the other side and there can be light, color, rainbows and unicorns waiting for you.
Reviewed online (screener provided by publicist – also screening at Slamdance 2023), December 22, 2022. Running time: 90 min.
PRODUCTION: A Kiel Garguilo Productions production. Producers: Neil Garguilo (p.g.a.) & Matt Kiel. Executive producers: Michael Hughes, Brian Mandle, Donovan Mannato & Andrew McElroy.
CREW: Director/writer: Matt Kiel. Music: Dimitri Smith.
CAST: (voices) Patton Oswalt, Harold Perrineau, Beau Mirchoff, Katie Leclerc, Maria Bamford, Sarah Natochenny, Parvesh Cheena, Brett Davern, Mark Sipka & Sethward.
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