Audience Member
It really funky scary
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/15/23
Full Review
valhalla7 s
The Czech sci-fi comedy Who Wants to Kill Jessie is one of the most oddball, whimsical, original films I've seen in quite a while. It starts off with a brilliant yet seldom explored premise: What happens when fictional characters find themselves trapped in reality. It then proceeds to explore this idea in a most comical fashion, and to blend fantasy and reality in a way that is both seamless and jarring.
It all begins with an older married couple. The husband, a mechanical engineer, has become hooked on a comic serial which shares the name of this film. The wife, a neurologist, has developed a method of viewing and modifying a person's dreams, which unknown to her, also brings their dreams to life. When she hears her husband talking in his sleep about some 'Jessie', she promptly tries out her invention on him. And sure enough, they are soon joined not only by Jessie, but also the villains who have been pursuing her for the secrets to her inventions. Mayhem ensues as the living dreams chase each other across the city, the cops try to keep up, and the wife grows more and more jealous.
Who Wants to Kill Jessie gets high marks for the originality of its ideas, and even higher marks for how it explores them. For instance, the way the fictional characters continue to communicate in speech bubbles, leading one boy to reply "Sorry miss, I can't read." Or the way that when someone takes an uppercut, they take a ballistic trajectory over the nearest rooftop. You can tell that something's with the jerky way they move, but that only makes it more cartoonish. And in the comic books, it doesn't matter how much destruction your battles leave, but in the real world, you put a hole in someone's bathroom wall and you're looking at a lawsuit.
Which brings up an interesting question: Can visions be held liable for damages, or are they the responsibility or the one who dreamed them? This and other questions are dealt with in the most ridiculous courtroom scene since Duck Soup. The scientists' attempts to figure out what to do with the figments are equally comic and unorthodox.
Not all of the laughs come from the fish-out-of-water paradigm either. The henpecked husband angle is played for all it's worth. And the wife's jealousy has ironic payoff when she finds the man of her dreams. The weak-willed, bribe taking prison guard is also good for a chuckle, and perhaps a subtle comment on the government. More direct is one doctor's comment about the party's potential uses for the dream modification technology. One thing about the Czechs; even when they're cracking you up, they know how to make a serious point.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Alot of the political commentary in the arts to come out of the eastern block during the cold war, especially in film, wear absurdist and surrealists garbs (Jvan Svankmajor, Milos Freeman, Vera Chytilova, etc) in order to escape censorship, though few, if any did. One that did however, is the delightful "Who Want's To Kill Jessie?", that dances somewhere between Fellini and golden age Charlie Chaplin, Michel Gondry doing Marx Bros., etc. Though made in 66 this film harkens back to the times of the silent comic stars and gags, like another Czech film "Daisies", this is surreal slapstick at it's finest. Unlike other Czech and Euro films of the era, there is a persistant lightheartedness and absurdity throughout the film, and a genuine "feel good" ending, where the cartoonishsly simple fact that "dreams can't be killed" becomes politically, personally, and comically profound. The humor is admittedly dated, but it's a fun forgeten little film, for people who like comics(the characters from the comic book only speak in word balloons), slapstick, Czech films, and comic(as in funny) surrealism. Whimsicle good times, in this forgeten Czech comedy.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Alot of the political commentary in the arts to come out of the eastern block during the cold war, especially in film, wear absurdist and surrealists garbs (Jvan Svankmajor, Milos Freeman, Vera Chytilova, etc) in order to escape censorship, though fe...(read more)w, if any did. One that did however, is the delightful "Who Want's To Kill Jessie?", that dances somewhere between Fellini and golden age Charlie Chaplin, Michel Gondry doing Marx Bros., etc. Though made in 66 this film harkens back to the times of the silent comic stars and gags, like another Czech film "Daisies", this is surreal slapstiick at it's finest. Unlike other Czech and Euro films of the era, there is a persistant lightheartedness and absurdity throughout the film, and a genuine "feel good" ending, where the cartoonishsly simple fact that "dreams can't be killed" becomes politically, personally, and comically profound. The humor is admittedly dated, but it's a fun forgetten little film, for people who like comics(the characters from the comic book only speak in word ballons), slapstick, Czech films, and comic(as in funny) surrealism. Whimsicle good times, in this forgetten Czech comedy.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
Full Review
Audience Member
An easily digestible Czech fantasy-comedy about dreams come to life.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Alot of the political commentary in the arts to come out of the eastern block during the cold war, especially in film, wear absurdist and surrealists garbs (Jvan Svankmajor, Milos Freeman, Vera Chytilova, etc) in order to escape censorship, though few, if any did. One that did however, is the delightful "Who Want's To Kill Jessie?", that dances somewhere between Fellini and golden age Charlie Chaplin, Michel Gondry doing Marx Bros., etc. Though made in 66 this film harkens back to the times of the silent comic stars and gags, like another Czech film "Daisies", this is surreal slapstiick at it's finest. Unlike other Czech and Euro films of the era, there is a persistant lightheartedness and absurdity throughout the film, and a genuine "feel good" ending, where the cartoonishsly simple fact that "dreams can't be killed" becomes politically, personally, and comically profound. The humor is admittedly dated, but it's a fun forgetten little film, for people who like comics(the characters from the comic book only speak in word ballons), slapstick, Czech films, and comic(as in funny) surrealism. Whimsicle good times, in this forgetten Czech comedy.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
Full Review
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