Synopsis
An Innuit hunter races his sled home with a fresh-caught halibut. This fish pervades the entire film, in real and imaginary form. Meanwhile, Axel tags fish in New York as a naturalist's gofer. He's happy there, but a messenger arrives to bring him to Arizona for his uncle's wedding. It's a ruse to get Axel into the family business. In Arizona, Axel meets two odd women: vivacious, needy, and plagued by neuroses and familial discord. He gets romantically involved with one, while the other, rich but depressed, plays accordion tunes to a gaggle of pet turtles
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Johnny DeppAxel Blackmar
- Jerry LewisLeo Sweetie
- Faye DunawayElaine Stalker
- Lili TaylorGrace Stalker
- Vincent GalloPaul Leger
- Paulina PorizkovaMillie
- Michael J. PollardFabian
- Polly NoonanBetty
- Tricia Leigh FisherLindy (uncredited)
- Candyce MasonBlanche
- 88
TV Guide Magazine
Lewis is only slightly awful, and he and Depp have a nice rapport; Dunaway gives a particularly juicy performance; and Taylor is simply amazing, seemingly able to transform herself physically for every role she plays. - 80
Empire
Bold and beautiful ideas perfectly realised. - 80
Chicago Reader
It illustrates the truism that the biggest difference between European and American directors using America as a site for fantasies is that the Europeans are likelier to know what they're doing. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
It is goofier than hell - you can't stop watching because nobody in the audience, and possibly nobody on the screen, has any idea what's going to happen next. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
Arizona Dream is an inspired, erratic goulash that ignores standard movie- making formulas. - 70
The New York Times
Arizona Dream is enjoyably adrift, a wildly off-the-wall reverie. It's more than a fish out of water. - 70
Los Angeles Times
Arizona Dream is the quintessential Nuart movie. It’s a dazzling, daring slice of cockamamie tragicomic Americana envisioned with magic realism by a major, distinctive European filmmaker, the former Yugoslavia’s Emir Kusturica. - 70
Time Out
A curate's egg with more than its share of longueurs, but its comically surreal viewpoint is infectious.