Meaning … A kingdom
of cardboard I craft and mold
with my own two hands.
Art … both beauty and
destruction, if left untempered
in expression.
In a world masooned by the ceaseless assault of cinematic cgi, Bill Watterson’s “Dave Made a Maze” breaks the mold with a stunning practical production feat, the likes the modern world has seldom seen. But do all other elements hold up as well as the hand-crafted kingdom put before us? Or does the film whimper and mold like an old cardboard crate left out in the rain?
Let’s get into it.
Dave Made a Maze centers on the titular floundering artist, Dave (Nick Thune), who struggles to complete any project he begins. However, amidst coping with the dwindling good will of his parents and girlfriend, Dave has a stroke of creation and envelopes himself in the construction of a box fort maze in his apartment living room. But problems arise when his girlfriend, Annie (Meera Rohit Kumbhani), returns home to find him trapped within his creation. And unable to convince Dave to destroy it, Annie, along with the help of Dave’s best friend Gordon (Adam Busch), and a few others, step inside for a rescue mission, only to find the maze far more vast and dangerous than it originally appears.
To say this film is a triumph of production design would almost be insulting. Because the craftsmanship and artistry on display here are nothing short of the most delightful and eye-catching whimsy of any frame of any film in the past decade … at least as it pertains to what occurs inside the maze. So simply from a visual standpoint, Dave Made a Maze is more than worth the 80 minutes of life set aside to see it. Even better, the entire romp is FREE to watch on youtube. So there’s practically no excuse to not, at least, give it a try. But before any would-be reader rushes off for their laptop or phones, there are a few other particulars worth knowing before diving in.
So, as mentioned previously, the film is a quick and inspiring feast for both the imagination and the eyes; one that 150% makes the visuals the star of the show. But be that as it may, it should be known that there are no other elements (in my opinion) that come even relatively close to reaching the astronomical heights of the sets and visual gimmicks.
Now that’s not to say none of the other elements aren’t good. In fact I would say the subtext work is done fairly well. For example, the construction of the maze being an allegory of how the endeavor of creation can become an all consuming, sisyphean task that only seems to be about chasing perfectionism or adding more simply for the sake of more, rather than actually finishing the project. Moreover there’s a great deal of time showcasing how the consuming nature of an artist's work and how, if not balanced out enough with normal life, it can very soon devour and/or damage every aspect of themselves, their lives, and even those closest to them.
Outside of that nothing else works or comes across as interesting as one would want it to. The characters, the acting, the comedy, and the horror elements all mostly fall flat. They’re not offensive, just duller than cardboard (ironically). In fact the most interesting and memorable parts of any of the gags, kills, or monsters all purely come from the spectacle and appreciation of the practical effects, making it only visually interesting. Not funny. Not scary. Not heartfelt. Just nice to look at and appreciate, which is fine for other mediums of art. But this is a movie. It can’t just be a clever premise. It can’t just be a moving painting. It should tell a compelling narrative. Not a necessarily complex one or absurdly original one. Just a compelling one in some form. But it doesn’t. However, that doesn’t mean the opportunity wasn’t there.
When it comes down to it, I feel the film is mostly a victim of wooden acting. There seems to be an intention of having mostly dry humor amongst an absurd world. That’s fine, but the emotional tension of any scene never really fluctuates beyond the same monotone note. And with so much wackiness happening around it, it only makes the wooden acting stand out even more. Moreover, it never really feels like the actors play too much with the world around them. They certainly react to it and interact with it. But it never feels like the world, nor the stakes it creates really have any emotional bearing on the characters, which is a shame because there’s literally so much to play with.
Small Spoilers - To Avoid, Skip to the Last Paragraph
As mentioned before, the film offers a lot of scenarios and gimmicks that beg to be explored or punctuated in some more bombastic way. I cannot state enough how much I wished for some of the visual elements to have carried on longer or showed up more throughout the film. From the time we enter the maze, it’s nothing but arts-and-crafty boobytraps galore, cardboard and paper creatures, and wacky environmental and human transformations. When these elements show up, they’re instantly interesting and fun. But the ride with any of them just ain’t long enough. So when they happen, at best they get a “That looks cool,” or a, “That’s clever.” And then they’re gone and the audience has movies on.
To pick apart two particular examples, first let’s take the Minotaur. It’s very reminiscent of the Greek myth of Theseus, has a cool paper mache aesthetic, and is menacing enough as it chases the heroes throughout the movie. The problem, however, is the beast never does anything really cool, nor go beyond general skulking and stalking. Very little meat on that bone there, despite appearing constantly throughout the film.
The second gimmick in question is the part where all the heroes fall through a pipe and come out the other side as paper bag people. It's a wonderful acid-trip of a moment, one that is easily a high spot in the trailer and film alike. But sadly, it only lasts about two minutes tops; two minutes of highly original goofball antics that offer the most riveting twist in the entire film. But two minutes nonetheless. It hits quickly, getting you all jazzed for a bonkers romp ahead that never comes. The heroes simply return to their human forms and carry on, leaving the gag as a minor speedbump along the adventure, one that never comes up ever again. And decisions like that, for me, just drag the movie down. It just feels like the movie is more interested in showing you how many tricks it can pull off, rather than really executing and utilizing a few specific ones for maximum enjoyment.
Spoilers Over
I know it may seem like I’m coming down hard on Dave Made a Maze, especially considering it was a small team filming everything in one apartment where they had to constantly tear down and build new sets to get the movie finished. But the truth of the matter is, it’s a fun, goofy smorgasbord of practical production delights hanging upon an enjoyable, but bare bones story. The real kryptonite is the stale acting. Some of it’s clearly intentional for comedic effect, but it doesn’t work as well as it wants to. And the humor that proves effective is either short lived or is too overplayed because the writing just can’t seem to be as interesting as the sets are. All in all, it’s worth the watch, especially considering it’s a quick adventure, freely available on Youtube from now until the sun burns out. So if you have 80-ish minutes to kill, getting lost in a maze may not be the worst way to spend your evening.
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