Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Pete Marchetto A fan of Gilliam's work but long out of the loop, I stumbled upon Tideland quite by chance knowing nothing about it. I settled down with it my expectations high.My early impression as the film unfolded was that the grotesque realism was laid on rather too thickly, and yet it never quite managed to reach the heights of true grotesquerie. With an intentionally Gothic backdrop, for example, it may have worked. Instead, the realism of the presentation just left me feeling it was overblown. The adaptation of a young girl to a clearly very dysfunctional family environment seemed unbelievable, particularly in her maintenance of her innocence. The many breaks I took here, and throughout what was to follow, were to some small degree motivated by discomfort by what was portrayed, but mostly I was just bored. Somehow the presumably grotesque seemed banal. In trying to confine itself within the bounds of realism, it failed by becoming unbelievable.I felt nothing for the central character, nor for her parents. Nor was I to subsequently develop any empathy with the central character or the two other main characters she was subsequently to meet.Some of the acting was good, though never excellent. Take a star for that. Likewise some of the camera-work. The ending almost made me feel perhaps the whole exercise hadn't been a complete waste of my time, but not quite. Still, another star for that and... well, that's about it.This being Gilliam, I turned to many of the good reviews this film received in search of what I must surely have missed, but found glowing arguments unconvincing. I'll probably read the novel at some point in further quest of enlightenment. But for now, my apologies, Mr. G. This is not a worthy addition to your body of work.

weasl-729-310682 Very strange movie, which I expected after reading about it.Still, praise whatever you believe in that most of existence is not so bizarre. Like some other reviewers, I need some processing time on this one.I'll watch it again, though. Maybe I'll get a little more in the loop, because I feel altogether outside of it right now after having watched "Tideland" for the first time. Also, no clue where the name came from.Interesting to see Jeff Bridges in such a creepy, scruffy role. Wow!We don't get to see much of Jennifer Tilly either, and I wouldn't have recognized her except for her distinctive voice. Very daring of her to appear with a protruding belly and unrestrained pendulous breasts in the very unglamorous scene sprawled on the bed. Sometimes this can be Oscar fodder; not so much here.Jodelle Ferland is astonishing in her role. I hope she had a lot of support during her performances, because no child should ever have to endure anything close to it in real life.I may well return to update this review, and will certainly return with a star rating. I just need to watch again and hopefully get my brain better wrapped around this extremely unsettling, but also engaging trip down the Rabbit Hole!

John Lind This is a film about a prepubescent child and her imagination that must be viewed through the eyes of a prepubescent child. Furthermore, one must have appreciation for and the understanding of the capacity young children have for creative imagination if it's not stifled and crippled by adult imposed structure 24/7 about what to do, how to do it and when to do it while they're growing up. Thus we have an opportunity to experience, albeit in an abysmally poor and at times gruesome environment, the self-organizing imagination of a young girl as she copes with a world around her she cannot control much. The story is told from that perspective, even if it's not all in first person. Gilliam says as much in the short video Foreword on the DVD and Blu-ray distributions of the film. I do not know if this was in the theatrical release. Failure to do this -- viewing it as an adult -- greatly risks seeing it superficially with gross misinterpretations and missing the complete depth it contains.There is plenty of fact and fiction, with reality and fantasy. However, there are also plenty of clues, some subtle, that the young girl, Jeliza-Rose, retains full capability to distinguish between all of them, even though she consciously chooses to ignore some facts and realities because it's convenient. That she grossly misinterprets what she observes in a couple of scenes is the result of *not* being an adult and therefore does not have the knowledge and experiences required to fully understand what is occurring. Thus, she develops her own based on what she does know and has previously experienced. What would be repulsive to an adult, isn't necessarily so to a child of 9 or 10 that doesn't have the depth of understanding that would make it repulsive. This is often called "innocence" and it can sometimes spare children from trauma as their lack of comprehension about what they've observed allows it to blow by.View the film with the eyes and mind of a 10-year old child, leaving behind the worldly knowledge and experiences of an adult, and appreciate the resilient imagination and innocence of childhood as it copes with a world containing poverty, abysmal parenting, tragedy and some gruesome events, without losing basic sanity. Gets an 8/10 from me for its effectiveness in delivering that through Gilliam's direction, the cinematography and excellent portrayal of Jeliza-Rose by Jodelle Ferland, a difficult role for a child her age.

Johnny Davis Just got done with this movie and I must say it drags on somewhat, similar to the way Fear and Loathing did for me. The dialogue is done in a way that it defies you to listen to it and absorb anything. I tried to watch Fear and Loathing 3 times and could never finish it. I finished Tideland, but it wasn't that great. I will say Jodelle Ferland and Brendan Fletcher are SUPERB in their roles as Jeliza Rose and Dickens, but it feels like 2 great performances in a boring, supposed-to-shock-me, Natural Born Killers-esque affair that has already been done. Then again, the film challenges me in that I am appalled that I am not appalled by the things I see here, so it has some social merit, of sorts.Overall, my feeling is that Terry Gilliam's best work is long behind him, like 12 Monkeys and Brazil, Time Bandits, Python, etc. I think sometimes filmmakers get older and lose their edge, falling victim to sentimentality, and it changes their art (usually for the worse, imho.) It is beginning to seem this is the case with Gilliam. I didn't like Imaginarium, either, btw. I saw That before I saw this.