{"id":48821,"date":"2025-07-24T13:43:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=48821"},"modified":"2025-07-24T13:43:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:43:03","slug":"a-grand-mockery-fantasia-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/24\/a-grand-mockery-fantasia-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"A Grand Mockery [Fantasia 2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Josie is a disaffected man living a quiet, dull life of monotony, driving him to a dull disconnect in Adam C. Briggs & Sam Dixon’s A Grand Mockery, presented as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s something at the heart of A Grand Mockery that makes me want to like it more than I did. It\u2019s a movie about those who are lost in life. There\u2019s a time in many lives when we feel dissatisfied and disconnected from the big picture. Things may be comfortable. A job. A relationship. People to talk to. But it doesn\u2019t sit. Aspects of life are repeated, working the same job, hitting the same locations again and again. We get in a rut. Life can become a liminal space, especially for those with underregulated mental health issues like Josie, played by Sam Dixon, who also co-writes and directs with Adam C. Briggs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Grand Mockery does this well, to a degree. Briggs and Dixon shot the film on 8mm, giving a fuzzy, washed-out look that reflects Josie\u2019s mindset and the world around him, whether it be the cemetery he frequents, the montage of the same customers and cleanings at the movie theatre, or conversations with his addled grandfather. It feels unreal and ethereal. The fuzz of not knowing if this is the right place to be and how to get out of the rut. The world of Josie is grainy, underlit, and vaguely sinister. There is an undercurrent of unknown surreality across A Grand Mockery. Dixon brings an engaging forcefulness to his portrayal of Josie as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However, I just couldn\u2019t connect with A Grand Mockery. Is there a point where a film’s motivation to make the point is too much? Sure, it might reflect the life and the feel of moving through, but for a film, even one with this message, must take that next step to engage and drive. Eventually, there is a slight shift from the repetition, with Josie going through a shift, changing his locations, altering his perceptions with other characters with a darker edge, covering his face with a rag, and meeting a group that could be borrowed from the background of David Lynch\u2019s Blue Velvet. But it\u2019s not enough to take note. There\u2019s something in it all, but it didn\u2019t come through for me. Maybe it was the dialogues and speeches often as overlong, pointless rambles. Maybe the laguid pacing. But I do feel I need to watch it again, and it might hit then. That\u2019s a good sign it\u2019s me and my mindset while watching than the film itself.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While A Grand Mockery didn\u2019t connect to me, it has to other audiences. It was the winner of the SXSW Sydney Best Feature Film. Acclaim is out there. If an underground film of disaffected aimless alienation shot with a grainy 8mm filmstock strikes you, seek it out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Grand Mockery is presented as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival 2025. Fantasia runs from July 16th through August 3rd.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josie is a disaffected man living a quiet, dull life of monotony, driving him to a dull disconnect in Adam C. Briggs & Sam Dixon’s A Grand Mockery, presented as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2497,1284],"tags":[302,356],"class_list":["post-48821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasia-fest","category-festivalsevents","tag-drama","tag-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48825,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48821\/revisions\/48825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}