*Not New* Streaming: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

 After 29 years, a man's passion project was realized.  The result: applause at Cannes.
Not much response anywhere else.

Let's see if Gilliam's Film was worth the wait (and multiple Castings)…

In Spain, a struggling Director- Adam Driver- is trying to make a project based on Don Quixote.

I'd say that we're getting META, but we've only just begun.

Frustrated, he's given inspiration via a random guy selling a DVD Copy of a Film he made about Quixote 10 years ago.
Yes, he had already made the Film...and just forgot about it, apparently.

We see bits of him making the Film and, apparently, bangs make you look 10 years younger.  Free advice, ladies.

He goes back to the Village he shot that Film in, since he was mere miles away.  What a coincidence!

He sees that things aren't great for the people he left behind.
Whoops.

Through a series of events, he ends up back with his original Quixote Actor (Jonathan Pryce), who now believes that he's the real guy.

On top of that, Driver can't quite distinguish fantasy from reality himself anymore.

In lieu of SPOILERS, here's Promo Art for when the Film was supposed to Co-Star Michael Palin in the Pryce role.

I kind of want to see that now.

To see how it plays out, stream/rent the Film now.

An interesting Film that is 1,000% a Terry Gilliam Film.  That's both high praise and a warning, depending on how you are.

I stand by alot of his Films- specifically Time Bandits and Baron Munchausen- but the results can be mixed- like The Zero Theorem.  The man is genuinely-creative and aims for the stars.  Actually getting there...can be a tricky proposition.

I honestly wonder how much this one changed over the nearly 3 Decades since the original pitch.  In 2002's Lost in La Mancha (the Making Of that become a Not Making Of Film), the story seems to be a bit different.  I've seen the Film pitched as a Time Traveler going back to meet with Quixote, which sounds great.  That's what the version with Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort was going to be, I think.

This version...has some good moments, but his penchant for adding realism and wanting to 'de-mystify' everything can be an impediment.  It works in Jabberwocky, since it is blatantly-telling you the 'real' version of a crazy Story/Poem, grime and all.  This version...is interesting to a point, but kind of lost me.

Speaking of lost, I originally tried watching the digital copy I had from 2019, but it was the Italian release.  While mostly-unchanged from the copy on Hulu (since it was shot 98% in English), one thing doesn't work there...

At this point, he goes to shove away the on-screen English Subtitles.

…which aren't on this copy.  Whoops.

A must see for fans of Terry Gilliam...but it's a hard sell to most other people.  At its worst, its vague and murky.