BLUEBIRD (2026) Fantaspoa 2026

 

Charles works as a handyman at a medical facility. His efforts to find love are going nowhere. One day he meets a girl names Chloe who said that they had met before in a dream. When Chloe goes missing Charles tries to find her. Meanwhile there is virtual reality, a pirate radio broad/podcast, people trying to sort out a program called Bluebird and some other things.

I don't know what I think of BLUEBIRD.  It isn't a question of the film being bad, rather, its question of the film having a lot to say and not always being able to tie it all together. The pieces, while obviously connected because they are in the film don't always seem to actually be part of the same story. There is some original stuff here and there is also a sense that the film is leaning into certain films (Matrix) a bit too much. The deadpan humor doesn't always blend with the suspense. 

Several days on from when I first saw the film I am still wrestling with it. It's not a film that allows for a person seeing a boatload of films at a festival to fully engage when you have to move on to the next thing. There is something there that has made me wrestle with the film for several days after seeing it. Something about the film hung with me and forced me to engage with it even as I was trying watching other films playing Fantaspoa. To be honest I think this is going to be a film I'm going to have to revisit away from the festival crush. This is a film I am going to need to sit with down the road when I don't have to give an instant reaction because I have 14 films lining up behind it.

My uncertainty aside, director Jay Arden Black has made an intriguing head trip of a film. Worth a look if the write up sounds like something you'd want to see. (And the fact that I am still wrestling with it and want to see it again is probably the best sort of rave I can give a film)