For a filmmaker to take a possessive credit in their debut is already a confident move; for the opening credits of the first feature by writer-director-star Carlson Young to present it as “Carlson Young’s ‘The Blazing World’” is a brazen one. That title, of course, belongs first to a somewhat more established female author: Margaret Cavendish, whose 1666 book “The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World” was a foundational work of science fiction. Cavendish’s adventurous exploration of alternate dimensions has given loose inspiration to Young’s glittery but grief-fueled fantasy, which those credits again describe as “inspired by Margaret Cavendish and other dreams.”
Other names like Lewis Carroll, Guillermo del Toro and Tarsem Singh aren’t lucky enough to get namechecked, though they’re all clearly in Young’s dream stew. The result, however, isn’t a film to which many would eagerly lay claim. Ambitious but tediously precious,...
Other names like Lewis Carroll, Guillermo del Toro and Tarsem Singh aren’t lucky enough to get namechecked, though they’re all clearly in Young’s dream stew. The result, however, isn’t a film to which many would eagerly lay claim. Ambitious but tediously precious,...
- 2/3/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The Blazing World is trying—really, really trying. It knows a whole bunch of classics and clearly took more than a few notes from them. The starting point is straight out of Ordinary People. The production design is straight from Robert Wiene and Victor Sjöström. The score borders on plagiarizing that of The Shining a few times, and the main character is clearly named after Margaret Cavendish as if naming the film after her 1666 work wasn’t enough. Come to think of it, saying that Carlson Young’s feature debut is really trying is something of an understatement.
But while most bad movies are easy to dismiss, The Blazing World is a bit different. It’s easy to feel bad for how bad it is. Everyone involved here clearly wanted to make something great, to pour themselves onto the screen. Here, Young adapts her 2018 short film of the same name to 99 minutes,...
But while most bad movies are easy to dismiss, The Blazing World is a bit different. It’s easy to feel bad for how bad it is. Everyone involved here clearly wanted to make something great, to pour themselves onto the screen. Here, Young adapts her 2018 short film of the same name to 99 minutes,...
- 2/1/2021
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
Tucked inside its dazzling, old-fashioned opening credits, Carlson Young’s confounding “The Blazing World” offers an early glimpse of what’s to come. The film’s writing credits (Young and Pierce Brown) include the notation that the film was “inspired by Margaret Cavendish and other dreams.” Cavendish was a 17th-century English aristocrat, and a trailblazer: She was a scientist, a prolific playwright, and the author of the utopian sci-fi forerunner “The Blazing World.” Young seems to work from more than Cavendish’s singular work, also leaning into her own “dreams” and a hearty dose of surreal cinematic predecessors.
A talented young actress best known for her work on “Scream: The Series,” Young first approached the material in her 2018 short of the same name. She also has a knack for casting, with co-stars who include Dermot Mulroney, Vinessa Shaw, singer Soko, and Udo Kier (being extremely Udo Kier).
Young has vision,...
A talented young actress best known for her work on “Scream: The Series,” Young first approached the material in her 2018 short of the same name. She also has a knack for casting, with co-stars who include Dermot Mulroney, Vinessa Shaw, singer Soko, and Udo Kier (being extremely Udo Kier).
Young has vision,...
- 2/1/2021
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
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