Sherlock Jr.
The Magic of Reality
This movie showcased a sense of magic in reality by showing everything move fluidly with great timing, however with less pleasure in the beginning for the hero than the dream. By having Buster attach trash to someone's foot and even falling on his own banana slip spectacularly, reality holds an aura of magic. However the lucid dream held more common and mysterious magic for the audience to enjoy.
A post production film technique that showed our hero lucid dreaming also immersed us in this new reality by showing changes to the movie playing and displayed his fears like magic on screen. By showing 3 new perspectives sequentially, the audience felt like the movie was surprising and unique which performs magic because we don't know what will happen next and how all these views got paired together. The different movie scenes when Buster is a part of the movie helps to continue the surprise and keeps the audience engaged. As the lucid dream continued, the stakes for Buster became higher and less consequential because it wasn't real, so the two men attempting to murder the hero came off as magical. Their "13 ball" bomb, axe chair, and poison showcase the magic of mystery and keeps us on the edge of our seats about whether the hero will die. The scene of Buster opening the vault to a busy roadway in the lucid dream was an amazing example of surprise magic because there was no reason to expect it but the hero accepts it without hesitation.
As a man who kept getting the worst luck through the movie as you see him miss out on a big sum of money to losing his girlfriend because of a crime he did no commit, the hero becomes the "hero" in his dream to combat reality's hardship. By subconsciously having his dream self avoid death at every turn, it makes up for the lack of luck and helps him feel in control of the situation compared to the "villain's" advantage in the beginning. Having the dad also be suspicious of the "villain" in the movie helps to repair the sadness of his girlfriend's dad asking the hero to never come back to the house, proving that his suspicions were validated by a person of importance to his relationship. The luck comes back to Buster in reality as his girlfriend solves the crime and he gets back into the dad's good graces. This balances out the terrible luck our hero had experienced earlier and provides an ending where Buster is still influenced by the movies by seemingly taking advice from it.
Overall this was a visually pleasing movie with an interesting plot that kept me interested in what was going to happen next!