By Terry Sherwood
In viewing Dream Team which calls itself “an absurdist homage to 90s basic cable TV thrillers” and “A post-modern, soft-core fever dream” I found it to be neither. Writer/directors Whitney Horn and Lev Kalman have random scenes with a plot about monster coral into something that looks like episodes of the Miami Vice television series. The film is structured as seven episodes of a TV named Dream Team and features episodes with titles like “Coral Me Bad” and “Doppelgängbang”. These are run back-to-back making the whole thing seem like the practice of binge-watching.
In the film, a piece of coral in a fish tank starts emitting a pink gas which kills marine biologist Dr. Theresa Gorgeous (Whitney Horn) and INTERPOL Agents No St. Aubergine (Esther Garrel) and Chase National (Alex Zhang Hungt) are assigned to the case just in time for a second killing to occur. This time, the victim has been killed by a bullet that was fired either from the ocean or from the sky.
All of this is accompanied by seemingly endless shots of waves, dogs running around on a beach and various sea creatures. And if that sounds dull, just wait until Dr. Vanessa Beef (Minht Mia) gives an endless, droning lecture on coral reefs. For something that’s supposed to have a connection to thrillers, Dream Team is remarkable, and it seems intentionally dull in long stretches. Even the presence of Carl, an invisible agent played by Lev Kalman and voiced by Morgan Mandalay, doesn’t add anything resembling suspense or thrills.
Dream Team is the first in a long while that I don’t see the point. Perhaps its appeal will be Twin Peaks generation for me it seems like tossing in random scenes hoping that they will connect with the viewer transforming the film for them. I am not good with this style of filmmaking, perhaps others are yet it should not be a struggle. One gets random silly points that become the point of the story because they don’t fit together is beyond me.
The film is defined by stilted acting and an episodic structure, you get channel surfing between New Age crime procedural, burlesque melodrama, an oceanography documentary, a music video, and a ridiculous aerobics show that is repeated over the end credits. Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni this is not or is that what it’s trying to do?
The film is perhaps an inside joke with the cast and crew, yet more what Dream Team resembles a mess on screen. You have possible sentient coral, an invisible man, lots of pointless shots to pad the running time and a plot that makes no sense at all. It certainly has elements of something that get lost in the process of filmmaking like Frances Ford did with that abomination called Bram Stoker’s Dracula. No cheese and sleaze here just chalk.
Bloody Flicks 