Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: DUST BUNNY [Toronto International Film Festival 2025 - Toronto, Canada]
The aspect of perception depends how far one wants to push the perspective. With "Dust Bunny" [Midnight Madness] director Bryan Fuller tries to go a little bit Terry Gilliam with interesting results but also creates a reminiscence of paint splatter perspective but with an end goal in mind. This film, which he said during the Q&A was initially pitched as part of a play with Spielberg's relaunch of "Amazing Stories" on Apple TV+ has more in common with "Tideland" and "Mirrormask" than "Hannibal" or "Pushing Daisies". A lot of the film is metaphor and grotesque imagery with a sense of the fantastic. "Dust Bunny" refers to a monster under a little girl's bed. This would-be monster has seemingly been devouring her guardians or terrorizing her, whichever way you want to look at it. Aurora [Sophie Sloan] simply thinks it is a monster out to get her. She sees a man battling demons in the street. That early scene provides a motley example of a bigger world before the movie restrains itself more inside. Granted the claustrophobia is mostly what the use of camera angles is for. Obviously the concept of mortality and loneliness that personified "Pushing Daisies" lurks here. A grand number of interested parties seems to want to channel the power that this girl has with the monster and yet they don't quite know what it is.
Sigourney Weaver plays the head of a crew that seems to have her claws in the underworld all over this unnamed city. Her moments with Mads Mikkelsen (who plays the hitman Aurora sees battling in the street) have their own electricity but the focus of the movie is Aurora, even though she comes off more precocious than daring in her courage. The wordplay especially in the early scenes is witty but almost trying too hard to be so. When the action cuts in towards the end, it is a little more dynamic. The production design overall though is fantastic. The midnight texture though tends to thwart reason in exchange for a sense of style. As an episode in an anthology series it might have worked better simply because of the esoteric nature of the story. The monster itself (like "Where The Wild Things Are") is either untamed or misunderstood but the bloodletting isn't soft. This is supposed to be a nightmare wrapped in a daydream to use a parlance of the time. Bryan Fuller has a unique eye in how he sees that world. The problem perhaps here is rules and if there ones that govern the structure of "Dust Bunny". It is a fun ride but the resolution in a way was the one that was there all along. B-
By Tim Wassberg
