If you simply learn the plot synopsis, Hannibal and Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller’s characteristic movie directorial debut sounds so much like Luc Besson’s 1994 movie Léon: The Professional. Both characteristic younger ladies who ask a hitman who occurs to dwell subsequent door to kill the monster that orphaned them. But regardless of these similarities, Dust Bunny is nothing like Besson’s moody thriller. Fuller has as an alternative crafted what John Wick might need seemed like if it have been made as a collaboration between Tim Burton and Wes Anderson. It’s a weird, ultra-stylish fairy tale undoubtedly value watching now that it’s out there to stream on HBO Max.
Fuller has all the time had a penchant for visible aptitude, from the dreamy world of Pushing Daisies to the mythic scope of American Gods to the inventive kills of Hannibal. But he’s actually outdone himself in Dust Bunny, which superbly captures the texture of being trapped in a childhood nightmare. Eight-year-old Aurora (Sophie Sloan) lives in New York in a whimsically adorned residence that appears like a fusion between a dollhouse and the eponymous constructing in Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. While her mother and father assume she simply has a giant creativeness, Aurora is completely satisfied there is a monster dwelling below her mattress that can devour anybody who steps on the residence’s ground. She finds a possible savior in her enigmatic new neighbor in unit 5B (Mads Mikkelsen).
Dressed in a tracksuit, Mikkelsen won’t look as fashionable as Keanu Reeves, however he fills the John Wick position neatly by adopting the identical flat have an effect on that hints at emotional depth. 5B inhabits an equally bizarre world – he’s first seen in motion murdering a whole armed gang that’s manning a dragon dance puppet in a battle that includes cleavers, shuriken, and fireworks. The actual motion is juxtaposed with placing animation to depict how Aurora sees the struggle, with 5B changing into a literal dragon slayer. Aurora heads to church (an excuse for Fuller to toss in a joyful musical quantity) and gleefully steals the gathering plate to pay 5B’s charge.
When 5B finds proof of foul play in Aurora’s dwelling, he suspects her mother and father have been killed by somebody on the lookout for him. It seems 5B has a variety of enemies and questionable allies, every with their very own ridiculous wardrobes and fight kinds. A stealth murderer tries to ambush 5B in an outfit matching the wallpaper in Aurora’s residence, whereas one other killer makes use of a dragon-shaped gun to blast open a door. 5B’s handler Laverne (Sigourney Weaver) wears stilettos that double as weapons. The movie has a physique rely that may make Wick proud.
But whereas 5B assumes Aurora has by chance gotten caught up in his ultraviolent world, he underestimates how a lot hazard he’s gotten into by serving to her. Dust Bunny resembles an early Tim Burton movie – a darkish fantasy that blends whimsy and genuinely disturbing visuals. In order to keep away from the ominously shifting wooden tiles beneath her, Aurora makes use of a passion horse to paddle a large hippo statue across the residence, shrieking at everybody else who enters to get off the ground. Fuller powerfully captures her dread as she lies in mattress and watches the creature dig a corkscrew-shaped gap within the floor earlier than tentatively reaching out with one thing between a tentacle and a claw to spear a grape and drag it again under. When the creature is revealed in all its toothy glory, it appears to be like like a monster from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are out for vengeance towards anybody who would ship their child to mattress with out supper.
Fuller has already confirmed his genius as a TV showrunner, and Dust Bunny demonstrates the insanity he’s able to in a characteristic movie. The twisted fairy tale has its personal unusual model of fortunately ever after, so it’s unlikely that Dust Bunny will kick off one other John Wick-style franchise the place Mikkelsen finds a brand new batch of unusual hitmen to dispatch. But it is best to take the chance to observe the movie at dwelling simply to benefit from the darkish magic in its weird juxtaposition of fashionable killers taking pictures one another and the horror of a really hungry bunny that’s the stuff of a kid’s nightmare.
Dust Bunny is now streaming on HBO Max.
