Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Escape from Tomorrow Blu-ray Movie Review

The surrealest place on earth.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 16, 2014

There’s a suburb of my hometown of Portland, Oregon called Wilsonville, which is home to a huge kids’ emporium that features what is basically a warehouse stuffed with things like arcade games and laser tag, with (outdoors) things like a batting cage, go carts, and miniature golf also thrown into the mix. It is of course one of the prime places to take tots on party days like birthday celebrations. Many years ago when my sons were young I had taken them out there for a day of fun. This place, like many others of its ilk, spits out tickets at the various arcade games that kids can then exchange for pretty cheesy prizes. The three of us were in line to perform that function, surrounded by the cacophony of literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of screaming children and the additional noise of all the arcade games going off simultaneously, when a haggard father in front of me turned around and silently mouthed to me, “I hate this place!” It was a moment of parental camaraderie that I personally will never forget, and it was funny enough for me to actually be able to withstand another hour or so of “family fun” (if only there were a bar for the parents at these places, but I digress). If you’re a parent and have ever experienced anything like this, you could very well get a kick—albeit a somewhat disturbing one—out of the weirdly hilarious Escape From Tomorrow, the debut effort of writer-director Randy Moore, a fearless guy who attracted quite a bit of attention on the festival circuit with this outing when it became known that Moore had somehow managed to shoot the bulk of the film in actual locations at Disney World and Disneyland without Disney’s omnipresent security personnel getting involved (or at least stopping the filming). Escape From Tomorrow has been regularly compared to the works of David Lynch, especially Lynch’s early entries like Eraserhead, and not just because this film, like that example of Lynchian bizarreness, is shot in black and white. I’d argue that while Moore dabbles in the same surrealism that often informs Lynch’s works, there’s also a more trenchant sense of humor in Moore’s film, one that utilizes the patently strange adventures of a newly unemployed husband and father weathering the supposedly happiest place on earth in order to generate uncomfortable laughs, rather than mere discomfort, as often seems to be the case with Lynch. While Moore’s so-called “guerilla filmmaking” achievements may draw curious onlookers to Escape From Tomorrow, the good news is that the film offers at least a bit more than simply a gimmick, even if it ultimately may not achieve total success as an actual story.

Moore’s skewed sense of humor is on display from the first moment of Escape From Tomorrow, when haggard father Jim (Roy Abramsohn) takes a cell phone call on the tiny balcony of one of those featureless resort hotels, only to be told that he’s being laid off. But this is no mere telephonic “dear John” call—his boss also recommends some of the rides he should experience. As if that weren’t humiliating enough, Jim turns around to see his impish young son Elliott (Jack Dalton) lock the sliding glass door to the balcony on the inside, isolating Jim out doors while the rest of the family sleeps. Just a typical “family fun” vacation, in other words.

The film actually begins relatively normally, with Moore detailing a typically disheveled family trying to navigate the immensity of Disney World (scenes were actually shot at both Disney World and Disneyland). Jim is married to Emily (Elena Schuber) and along with Elliott there’s also a little girl named Sara (Katelynn Rodriguez). The four take the endless monorail ride into the park, where Jim first is entranced by two French girls named Sophie and Isabelle (Danielle Safady and Annet Mahendru). While Sophie and Isabelle continue to traipse in and out of the proceedings for most of the rest of the film, Jim’s attention is at least momentarily diverted when he and his family throw caution to the wind and go on the “It’s a Small World” ride (in one of the few surrenders to the exigencies of Disney’s reach, the film does not utilize any actual source music). On the ride, Jim begins to have an uneasy feeling, and it becomes clear he’s either hallucinating, experiencing a nervous breakdown, or perhaps has entered an alternate reality where the lovable Disney characters and even his family begin to take on a somewhat demonic cast.

There’s a Freudian element to Escape From Tomorrow that plies Jim’s uneasy psyche, especially with regard to his relationship with women. He continually argues with his wife, he obviously has eyes for the two young French girls, and in one of the film’s most disturbing sequences, he ends up losing his daughter Sara. In one scene that may or may not be part of Jim’s imagination, he has carnal relations with a mysterious woman who later plays a part in Sara’s disappearance.

Does any of this make “sense” in any kind of traditional narrative way? Not really. Moore attempts to weave things together in a late gambit indicating Jim is a part of some super-secret conspiracy, but since even that may be part of the character’s mental breakdown, ultimately there are no real answers, especially when things go from bad to worse and once again Elliott is caught closing a door, this time isolating a more seriously endangered Jim. While Escape From Tomorrow eludes any facile analysis, it’s long on mood and especially a rather liberal dose of black humor. Any parent who has ever felt trapped in any magic kingdom will no doubt be sympathetic to Jim’s growing consternation. Moore seems to suggest that there is no escape from the clutches of Disney and his ilk, which is certainly a more frightening prospect than any animated villain could create.

Escape from Tomorrow Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Escape From Tomorrow is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Because Moore and his crew were attempting to pass as typical park tourists, the film was shot entirely with two different Canon EOS cameras, so expectations should probably be dialed down a bit from a typically digitally lensed feature. While the image is reasonably sharp and detailed, the on the fly footage has little depth and there are some recurrent issues with image stability (some of which are addressed in the commentary by Moore and DP Lucas Lee Graham). Some lighter gradients in this black and white feature are occasionally overblown, as is contrast, leading to (at least at times intentional) blooming of whites. This may or may not contribute to some slight banding which is minimally in evidence. All of this said, the issue here isn't that Escape From Tomorrow looks bad, but that it looks as good as it does. There's a purposefully dreamlike (and/or nightmarish) quality to the film that this kind of lo-fi approach suits perfectly. Despite the contrast variances, overall grayscale is surprisingly well modulated and while there's an absolute lack of shadow detail in some of the interior ride sequences, generally speaking things segue rather nicely between the brightly lit outdoors moments and the dimly lit inside segments.

Escape from Tomorrow Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Escape From Tomorrow's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 features decent if not spectacularly realized surround activity, nicely detailing the background babble of the park crowds with gentle spills into the side and rear channels, but tending to reserve the best immersion for Abel Korzeniowski's sometimes anachronistically epic score. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly in this problem free track.

Escape from Tomorrow Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Writer/Director Randy Moore and Cinematographer Lucas Lee Graham. This a pretty jokey affair, with the two kidding around and unfortunately not getting too involved in technical aspects like how they achieved certain shots (they do drop a big hint about how they got all the abandoned park shots late in the film). This is never less than enjoyable, but I personally was wishing for a bit more background information on the film.


• Commentary by Actors Roy Abramsohn and Elena Schuber in Character. This probably seemed like a good idea on paper, but its execution is a bit haphazard, with long pauses and a surprising lack of any real laughs.


• The Making of Escape From Tomorrow (1080p; 15:06) has some excellent interviews with Moore and the other participants, including the legal wizard who made sure the lot of them weren't going to go to jail for the rest of their lives if Disney had sued.


• Theatrical Poster Gallery (1080p)


• Escape From Tomorrow Trailer (1080p; 1:06)

Escape from Tomorrow Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Escape From Tomorrow admittedly may function better as a high concept than as a completed film, but it's such an audacious premise, and one which utilized such a risky filming gambit, that it really should be seen by lovers of independent film. At times nicely truculent, and almost always disturbing in a Lynchian sort of way, this is certainly one of the most unique films in recent memory, even if it isn't completely successful. While the shooting conditions resulted in some slightly variable video quality, things actually look surprisingly sharp and well detailed here, all things considered, and the audio is similarly well realized. While the commentaries aren't quite the info-fests and/or entertainments one might have hoped, overall this is an interesting package and comes Recommended.