Good film but I don’t really like it

It’s clearly a thoughtful and highly creative work, I’m glad it exists and that it’s well regarded, but I find it tough to connect with the characters and the story.

Take 1984 - that film has a credible dystopian future, a protagonist one can empathise with, and a story of consequence.

Brazil feels like a massive rip-off (even though Gilliam claims he hadn’t read/seen 1984) except the world is comically absurd so the menace doesn’t really come through, and Pryce’s Sam Lowry is really goofy.

Kim Griest’s Jill is the most human character, but why? Sadly we didn’t see too much of her because Gilliam apparently didn’t like her performance and cut a load of her scenes. I think some more background of her and other ‘rebels’ would have given some more sanity to the film, which would then contrast with all the absurd insanity of the wider society.

The action scenes are not particularly well filmed and they tend to drag, in fact the whole film lacks pacing and narrative momentum, and at nearly 2.5 hours you really feel it.

It’s a film I always have fond memories of, but when I actually watch it I remember why I only end up screening it once a decade. Critics clearly loved it but I suspect that’s because it’s heavily anti-consumerist and because it has a brave downbeat ending, which Gilliam had to fight for.

Celebrating this film meant you were championing artistic expression over studio greed, it was the trendy thing to do but meant they forgot to critique the film, and as a result Brazil has a rather inflated reputation, I find.