The texan Carlson Young, Director of The blazing world (2021), which has received a special mention in the record of the Sitges Festival What best first film, got into this seventh art thing like actress.
His roles, television and small especially, ranging from a cheerleader in Heroes (Tim Kring, 2006-2010) or Tammy in True blood (Alan Ball, 2008-2014), going through an inspector in CSI: Las Vegas (Anthony E. Zuiker, 2000-2015) or Mia Wilcox from CSI: Cyber (Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn and Zuiker, 2015-2016), to Brooke Maddox in scream (Jill E. Blotevogel, Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin, 2015-2019) or the Brooklyn Clark of Emily in Paris (Darren Star, since 2020).
We do not know when he began to harbor narrative concerns, but his first short it was precisely The blazing world (2018), which has now turned into a feature film and starring just like Margaret Winter. But, if the libretto for the short version was signed only by her, for the one for the new film she has collaborated with the writer Pierce brown, responsible for the five volumes that make up the successful saga of Red Dawn (2014-2019) to this day.
Carlson Young’s debut feature: from surrealism to pure fantasy
The first sequence clearly marks the semi-ionic or fanciful tone that Carlson Young wants to print on the work, for the chosen images and the score of the style composed by the also incipient Isom Innis (Little boy), which entails a certain difficulty so as not to fall into the implausibility of the staging decisions, some of which are naive, which are one step away from it.
However, what can truly be reproached The blazing world is that he does not take it any more calmly to ask us what squeaks in the feverish perceptions of Margaret Winter and, of course, that he does not unhurriedly build the abnormal situation and the tribulations of his characters, two aspects of great dramatic importance for the viewer to enter without question in the anguish with them, to achieve their empathy and that, in short, they believe what happens and does not bring them to the fresh air.
Not that such a thing happens at all, but to a large extent, yes. There is, on the other hand, strange starts from the soundtrack that do not fit with the concept or the emotional moment of his scenes; and synthesizer notes that allude, without a doubt, to that of Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind to The glow (Stanley Kubrick, 1980). And, as you enter the rabbit hole, the surrealism of terror is transformed into a pure bleak fantasy along the way. Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865), with grateful visual occurrences.
The contributions that define ‘The Blazing World’
The blazing world share certain basic motivations of Inside of the labyrinth (Jim Henson, 1986) or Beyond the dreams (Vincent Ward, 1998); and features the intervention of a mysterious character embodied by Udo Kier (Breaking the waves), which reminds us of those who always speak in a confused or enigmatic way in some of the aforementioned films; crooked structures and transitions to landscapes like those of Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 1988) and the dark reverse of video games Silent Hill (Keiichiro Toyama, 1999-2012) or even from The Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006) by the pain and the flight.
Both Carlson Young and Udo Kier and Vinessa Shaw (Eyes Wide Shut) and Dermot Mulroney (Zodiac) in the shoes of Alice and Tom Winter offer credible performances in their own intensity. Although we will not remember others who comply equally, such as Liz Mikel (Friday Night Lights), John Karna (Lady bird) or Soko (Her) embodying Dr. Cruz, Blake and Margot.
We must also talk about the montages with flashbacks Impressionists and abrupt cuts made by James K. Crouch (Twelve orphans) to contribute to the environmental scarcity of The blazing world, the games of light and colors provided by cinematographer Shane F. Kelly (A Scanner Darkly) and above all, decisive production design devised by Rodney Becker (Boyhood). Because these contributions are essential to define Carlson Young’s ambitious proposal, which does not rush from the miracle tightrope.