Omeleto | THE MAGICIAN | Omeleto @Omeleto | Uploaded June 2024 | Updated October 2024, 7 hours ago.
A man is forced to see a psychic.
THE MAGICIAN is used with permission from Lucy Owens. Learn more at https://lemonstpictures.com.
Neil is waiting to see a psychic at her home. He doesn't really want to go, but Neil's wife is making him, in hopes of pulling him out of his passivity.
When he meet Wanda, the psychic, he doesn't know quite what to expect. She begins by helping him breathe and relax and then reading his Tarot cards. But as the cards reveal themselves, the reading veers off in unexpected directions, forcing Neil to confront his true desires for the first time.
Directed and written by Lucy Owens, this distinctive short dramedy has a tinge of the occult to it, using Tarot cards and a psychic reading as a narrative frame. It has a heightened, stylized look and feel, with rich saturated colors, dramatic synth score and expressionistic images that draw upon the look of vintage Italian horror "giallo" films. But at the heart, this wild roller-coaster of a story is really one of self-discovery and insight, as a man trapped in life situations he doesn't want is forced to grapple with what he does want in life.
We first meet Neil at his office as he talks on his phone to his wife Katie, gazing at their wedding picture as she railroads him into seeing her psychic, Wanda, after skipping a goat yoga class. The workaday look and feel of the film changes when Neil enters Wanda's space, and Wanda herself gets a mysterious introduction, as a series of mysterious gestures, a hand entering the frame, a looming shadow. Yet when Neil finally sees her, she seems personable and normal, outside of a few flourishes of eccentricity.
This air of unpredictability continues as Neil's encounter with Wanda unravels in earnest. The storytelling has fun with flashes of comedy, thanks to some yogic breathing warm-ups, but there's also an undercurrent of uncanny ominousness with Wanda's character. As the reading processes, each Tarot card revealing an earnest dimension of Neil's life situation and dilemma, Wanda shrewdly sells the narrative she's building for Neil, though his diffidence and passivity prove increasingly frustrating.
As Neil, actor Donato Di Luca plays a fundamentally decent "nice guy," but one almost half-asleep at the wheel of his life. As Wanda, actor Ruth Johansson has fun with the role of a bestower of wisdom, able to see the truth of a man who doesn't want to see it. She plays a sharp, modern version of a mystic seer with aplomb, but when those theatrics don't work, she isn't afraid of more outlandish and unconventional methods to get Neil to see the truth in front of him.
Those methods are perhaps more in line with wild 70s self-help groups, giving THE MAGICIAN an entertaining and anarchic ending to Wanda and Neil's brief but transformative time together. But it also leaves Neil clear on how his life must change, giving him a final literal push to take action. It makes for an emotionally satisfying end, one relevant to anyone who's ever felt trapped in life and needing a reminder of their inner magic and power to change it.
A man is forced to see a psychic.
THE MAGICIAN is used with permission from Lucy Owens. Learn more at https://lemonstpictures.com.
Neil is waiting to see a psychic at her home. He doesn't really want to go, but Neil's wife is making him, in hopes of pulling him out of his passivity.
When he meet Wanda, the psychic, he doesn't know quite what to expect. She begins by helping him breathe and relax and then reading his Tarot cards. But as the cards reveal themselves, the reading veers off in unexpected directions, forcing Neil to confront his true desires for the first time.
Directed and written by Lucy Owens, this distinctive short dramedy has a tinge of the occult to it, using Tarot cards and a psychic reading as a narrative frame. It has a heightened, stylized look and feel, with rich saturated colors, dramatic synth score and expressionistic images that draw upon the look of vintage Italian horror "giallo" films. But at the heart, this wild roller-coaster of a story is really one of self-discovery and insight, as a man trapped in life situations he doesn't want is forced to grapple with what he does want in life.
We first meet Neil at his office as he talks on his phone to his wife Katie, gazing at their wedding picture as she railroads him into seeing her psychic, Wanda, after skipping a goat yoga class. The workaday look and feel of the film changes when Neil enters Wanda's space, and Wanda herself gets a mysterious introduction, as a series of mysterious gestures, a hand entering the frame, a looming shadow. Yet when Neil finally sees her, she seems personable and normal, outside of a few flourishes of eccentricity.
This air of unpredictability continues as Neil's encounter with Wanda unravels in earnest. The storytelling has fun with flashes of comedy, thanks to some yogic breathing warm-ups, but there's also an undercurrent of uncanny ominousness with Wanda's character. As the reading processes, each Tarot card revealing an earnest dimension of Neil's life situation and dilemma, Wanda shrewdly sells the narrative she's building for Neil, though his diffidence and passivity prove increasingly frustrating.
As Neil, actor Donato Di Luca plays a fundamentally decent "nice guy," but one almost half-asleep at the wheel of his life. As Wanda, actor Ruth Johansson has fun with the role of a bestower of wisdom, able to see the truth of a man who doesn't want to see it. She plays a sharp, modern version of a mystic seer with aplomb, but when those theatrics don't work, she isn't afraid of more outlandish and unconventional methods to get Neil to see the truth in front of him.
Those methods are perhaps more in line with wild 70s self-help groups, giving THE MAGICIAN an entertaining and anarchic ending to Wanda and Neil's brief but transformative time together. But it also leaves Neil clear on how his life must change, giving him a final literal push to take action. It makes for an emotionally satisfying end, one relevant to anyone who's ever felt trapped in life and needing a reminder of their inner magic and power to change it.
