FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

framptonhollis On a second viewing, my appreciation for this 80's oddity has grown significantly. I have not really "understood" it more per se (I'm not sure if I will ever truly be able to entirely "understand" this film and I do not think that I'm supposed to), but I certainly have found more moments to cherish, tiny details that add to the overall absurdity that this work of art so gloriously embodies.Bending and twisting genres and genre conventions, "Tales from the Gimli Hospital" is the greatest (and probably the only) black tragicomedy-horror-melodrama-avant garde- slapstick-thriller-love story I have ever seen, one that bathes in its gloriously Gothic and often sad atmosphere. Melancholy soaks the movie's rather scary surface, but this melancholy is also accompanied with a sharp sense of humor largely encompassed by witty and surreal visual gags, moments so absurd you cannot help but laugh. Despite its massive and bizarre combo of varying genres, "Tales from the Gimli Hospital" never feels jumbled because its style always has the same bite. The music and performances do not change, and the overall mood doesn't either, the only thing that changes is the audience's reaction, which I feel is the best way to mix and combine genres. Guy Maddin uses his signature, silent-film-mimicing style to great effect, capturing the charm of oldie horror films and classic slapstick with a totally weird and somewhat manic twist!

Michael Neumann Fans of David Lynch and early Luis Buñuel will find plenty to admire (or scratch their head at) in this esoteric, shoestring budget mock Icelandic folk tale, set in a bleak sub-arctic village where victims of a mysterious plague are treated by having their sores caressed with dead seagulls. Winnipeg director Guy Maddin borrows extensively from the primitive vocabulary of the early sound era (with grainy photography, a scratchy music score, and crude post-dubbed dialogue) to create a nonsensical 70-minute punchline with no joke attached. The antique style of the production would have to be considered its own reward, especially since the story itself (involving incest, hints of necrophilia, and a mysterious butt-grabbing duel to the death) leads nowhere in particular. The awkward emoting by Nordic characters named Gunnar, Snjofridur, and Einar the lonely; the Louise Brooks look-alike nurses; and the cameo appearance of a black-faced vaudeville minstrel are all reminiscent of some nightmarish, early 1930s melodrama, but Maddin's aesthetic is aimed squarely at today's midnight cult audiences.

surrealistless This is the first Maddin film I've seen, and it seems like a great introduction. The other reviewers have already touched on the plot and the mix of surrealism and silent film that Maddin brings together so I won't reiterate. I'll add though that Gimli actually *is* comparable to Eraserhead besides just being low budget and in B&W. (SPOILER AHEAD....) The "fish princess" that Einar sees can be compared to the "lady in the radiator" from Eraserhead, but different in appearance.So, to make this short, pick it up if you're a fan of Luis Bunuel and B&W era Lynch. This should also appeal to the silent film enthusiasts as Maddin is a big one himself.

Spearin Here's a movie that took its miniscule budget and really made the most of it.How? Well, take a look at the looping synchronization. It can't be done well without being expensive, so they do very little of it, and get around the problem by shooting characters from obtuse angles that hide the problem. Color's expensive too, so it's in black and white. And music? You can hear the needle drop on the record.But the money they spent went in the right areas. The visuals are so strong and the camera placement sometimes so unexpected that you find yourself wondering what it is you're looking at--and then something moves, and the tableau breaks apart into a conventional scene. The opening sequence, a long sfx pan down to the Gimli hospital, going through clouds and angels, evokes the 1940s so well that you halfway expect to see William Bendix in one of the beds. The costuming is strange and the plot seems totally unworkable, and yet it pulls you in and keeps you there, never seems to make a horrible misstep, and at times hits exactly what it's aiming for.Sure it's an amateur film. But look at the nice smooth camera work, the well-paced editing, the good choices in music for mood. While it's all too easy to cite Cocteau, Blood of a Poet comes to mind often while watching Tales from the Gimli Hospital, thanks to the surprising interruption of the narrative by little bits of surreal magic. You don't walk away from this one saying that it could have been done better--instead, you wonder how it was done so well for so little.