Despite being already a cult film, Arizona Dream is the clear demonstration that Kusturica feels much more comfortable among his Balkan people than surrounded by Hollywood stars in the Arizona desert. It's not that the movie is bad, it's actually quite interesting. It has poetry and that extravagant irreverence that so characterizes the Serbian director's work. But it lacks density. The characters talk about existential clichés revealing a density equivalent to a sheet of paper. What a difference when we remember his countrymen from Time of the Gipsies, from Underground or from Black Cat, White Cat. In these films Kusturica was being authentic, intelligently satirizing his people, his culture. Here's just trying to be Kusturica for Hollywood consumption.
Review of Arizona Dream
