By Ian Kane
NR | 1h 31m | Adventure, Fantasy, Romance | 2021
Directors Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley’s “Strawberry Mansion” is less a film and more a cinematic dare. It’s a reminder that there are still directors willing to dismantle the machinery of modern filmmaking and rebuild it in stranger, more inviting ways.
The directors reached back to an era when experimental films weren’t marketing gimmicks but acts of boundless creativity. Birney and Audley created a handmade vision stitched from curiosity, nostalgia, and a healthy dollop of strangeness.
The pair’s earlier collaboration, “Sylvio,” introduced their off-kilter sensibilities. “Strawberry Mansion” carries forward that sense of whimsy, but on a grander stage. Its world feels sugar-dusted and dreamlike, as though designed by a filmmaker who wandered into a toy box and never left.
Every frame seems engineered to invite wonder, not to overwhelm, and creates an atmosphere where even the weirdest moments feel oddly tender and inviting.
James Preble (Kentucker Audley) is a dream auditor where many dreams are stored, in "Strawberry Mansion.” GJW+
This time, their imagination is turned loose on a future where dreams are no longer private. Instead, it’s a bureaucratic dystopia where state agents record, monitor, and even tax people’s nightly subconscious wanderings.
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The setting could easily skew toward grimness, but Birney and Audley approached it with a light, mischievous touch. Rather than wallowing in oppression, the film feels like a playful act of resistance, a reminder that the human imagination remains slippery even under surveillance.
In spirit, it shares a lineage with futuristic cautionary tales like “A Scanner Darkly” (2006), “V for Vendetta” (2005), and “The Zero Theorem” (2013), yet it resists their severity. Where those films roared, this one hums, and somehow that makes its message resonate even more. The result is an indie sci-fi daydream that sits comfortably alongside its genre ancestors.
A Delightfully Strange Sci-Fi Romance
James Preble (Kentucker Audley) is the kind of man who treats dream auditing like a fine art. Every night’s bizarre imagery is neatly cataloged and taxed before breakfast. In the year 2035, this is normal. The government has found a way to monetize your subconscious, and Preble is one of the gray-suited clerks who makes sure you pay up. His newest case, however, is a little weirder than the usual dream-on-a-USB job.
He’s sent to the countryside to audit Arabella Isadora, preferring to be called Bella (Penny Fuller), an eccentric artist who has recorded decades’ worth of dreams on hundreds of VHS tapes instead of digitally. For Preble, this means camping out in her candy-colored home and binge-watching her subconscious like the world’s strangest miniseries.
As the days roll on and the tapes keep spinning, Preble starts to feel like an uninvited guest in Bella’s mind, eventually meeting her younger self (Grace Glowicki). The dreams are whimsical and full of bizarre imagery and wandering characters.
Somewhere between watching Bella’s past adventures and sharing home-cooked meals with her in the waking world, Preble begins to feel a spark he can’t ignore. The more he rewinds, pauses, and plays, the more his work feels less like an audit and more like an invitation.
Arabella’s younger self (Grace Glowicki) enjoying time with James Preble (Kentucker Audley), in “Strawberry Mansion.” GJW+
But not everything in Bella’s dreams is so welcoming. Lurking behind the playfulness is something more insidious, a hint that even imagination isn’t safe from intrusion. Preble begins to suspect that advertising, bureaucracy, and some shadowy government meddling are worming their way into the dream world.
Handmade Sci-Fi
“Strawberry Mansion” is the kind of movie that’s perfectly content to be odd. While a lot of indie films try to out-brood each other, this one is practically handing you a “chicken shake” (yes, it’s in there) and telling you to sit down and enjoy the ride.
It’s a refreshing counter-program to gritty, handheld “realism” and proves there’s room in the future for indie sci-fi movies that are unusual, soft-edged, and even a little bit sweet.
Visually, the film is a treat for anyone who likes their sci-fi with a touch of retro futurism. The VHS tapes and Preble’s suit and fedora give the world an out-of-time quality. It’s as if someone mashed up a 1940s detective flick, a 1960s car commercial, and an 1980s sci-fi movie into one eccentric future.
The production design team clearly raided a thrift store with enthusiasm and then arranged everything just so. It gave the dream sequences the feeling of a home-brewed Terry Gilliam diorama.
The film wanders through ideas about individuality, memory, and the way corporations creep into every corner of life: yes, even REM sleep cycles. There’s romance, there’s adventure, and there’s a man in a Hawaiian shirt trying to sell you soda inside your own subconscious.
It’s a peculiar movie, and while it may not be everyone’s flavor, it’s exactly the kind of brave, thought-provoking cinema that sticks with you after the credits roll.
“Strawberry Mansion” is available on GJW+
‘Strawberry Mansion’ Director: Kentucker Audley, Albert Birney Starring: Penny Fuller, Kentucker Audley, Grace Glowicki Not Rated Running time: one hour, 31 minutes Release Date: Feb. 18, 2022 (limited U.S. release) Rated: 4 stars out of 5
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