New Jersey Stage logo
New Jersey Stage Menu



 

REVIEW: "Dreamland"


By Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com

originally published: 05/25/2020


It may seem strange to claim that an actor whose IMDB page currently lists 213 performing credits has been under-utilized throughout his career, but that’s the case with Canadian character actor Stephen McHattie. Thanks to the vast amount of American productions that shoot north of the border for tax reasons, the Canuck star has never been out of work, but meaty roles have largely eluded him, and he’s best known to casual viewers as “that guy” who crops up in baddy of the week roles in TV shows.

McHattie’s meatiest role arguably came courtesy of another stalwart of Canadian cinema, director Bruce McDonald, who cast him in the lead role of a gravelly voiced radio show host in his 2008 horror movie 

Pontypool, perhaps the most interesting of the wave of zombie movies that proliferated during the noughties. McHattie reteams with both McDonald and Pontypool writer Tony Burgess for Dreamland, which offers him not one, but two lead roles. The movie will be available on VOD platforms June 5.

The first role sees McHattie play a heroin addicted trumpeter referred to only as “Maestro.” The musician is one of those classic noir archetypes, an artist trapped in a world of criminality because it’s the only place that allows for his temperamental idiosyncrasies. Living in a near future Luxembourg, Maestro is kept under lock and key in the castle cum hotel where he performs for a mix of gangsters and aristocrats, occasionally sneaking out for a fix. He’s made an enemy of local mobster and child trafficker Hercules (a miscast Henry Rollins), who tasks his top enforcer, Johnny Deadeyes (McHattie’s second role), with chopping off Maestro’s pinky finger before he performs at a special banquet to be thrown that night by the local countess (Juliette Lewis).

Johnny has turned against his master since he started dealing in child prostitution, and instead of taking the trumpeter’s finger he pays off a homeless man with a bottle of whiskey for his pinky instead. I guess he really likes jazz. When the young boy that lives next door to Johnny asks for his help in rescuing his 14-year-old sister from the clutches of Hercules, Johnny’s conscience kicks into gear and he accepts that he now has to go to war with his employer.

Something that many filmmakers can’t seem to grasp is that you can’t set out to make a cult film. History and the public decides whether or not a movie earns a cult status - it’s not something that can be engineered. Yet we see many movies that stink of a desperate attempt to appeal to a niche audience that doesn’t yet exist, and I’ve rolled my eyes at every press release that pitches an unreleased production as a “cult movie.” 




Advertise with NJ Stage for $50-$100 per month, click here for info



Dreamland is a classic example of a pre-packaged, “just add water”, wannabe cult movie, filled with “quirky” and “eccentric” characters and low on story or thematic depth. McDonald throws in eccentricities like casting McHattie in dual roles for no real discernible purpose, having children play hitmen and pulling a vampire out of the film’s ass in a final act of desperation. But it all feels shallow and there’s no trace of an auteur at play here, simply a filmmaker aping the likes of David Lynch and in particular, Alan Rudolph, whose neo-noir masterpiece and proper cult movie Trouble in Mind this leans heavily on, right down to ripping off its climax and melancholic jazz score.

It’s nice to see McHattie given a role he can chew on, and his commitment to the film’s pseudo surreality keeps you invested up to the point where you realize it’s going nowhere of note. There are brief glimpses of McDonald’s black humor, like when Maestro’s attempt to win back his pawned trumpet at gunpoint takes a twist when the pawnbroker’s wife encourages him to kill her husband. But Dreamland is just trying too damn hard, constantly poking us in the ribs and begging us to find it all so crazy. It’s the cinematic equivalent of one of those workplace signs that reads “You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps.”

Dreamland 2 ½ stars out of 5

 

Directed by: Bruce McDonald; Starring: Juliette Lewis, Stephen McHattie, Henry Rollins, Tómas Lemarquis, Lisa Houle



Eric Hillis is a film critic living in Sligo, Ireland who runs the website TheMovieWaffler.com



Advertise with NJ Stage for $50-$100 per month, click here for info




FEATURED EVENTS

ART | COMEDY | DANCE | FILM | MUSIC | THEATRE | COMMUNITY

To narrow results by date range, categories,
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.


How

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Friday, July 11, 2025 @ 7:00pm
Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
100 South Street, Morristown, NJ 07960
category: film

Click here for full event listing

 

How

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Saturday, July 12, 2025 @ 2:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film

Click here for full event listing

 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: Moana 2

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 @ 7:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


Click here for full event listing

 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: Moana 2

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 @ 10:30am
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


Click here for full event listing

 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: The Wild Robot

Tuesday, July 22, 2025 @ 7:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


Click here for full event listing

 

More events

Event Listings are available for $10 and included with our banner ad packages




 

EVENT PREVIEWS

Fall

Fall 2025 New Jersey Film Festival Preview

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The New Jersey Film Festival returns to Rutgers University September 5 through October 10, 2025. As it has done the last few years, the festival will include select in-person screenings with all films available via video on-demand (VOD) as well. There are also a few screenings available only via VOD. Twenty films will have their New Jersey or Area Premiere (Middlesex County).



The

The Levoy Theatre hosts the CUT International Short Film Festival

(MILLVILLE, NJ) -- The Levoy Theatre hosts the CUT International Short Film Festival September 19-20, 2025. The festival's motto is 'Short Films for Quick Minds'. Its aim is to become the premier festival in New Jersey for short form films.



Count

Count Basie Center for the Arts presents An Evening With Francis Ford Coppola and screening of "Megalopolis"

(RED BANK, NJ) -- Legendary director, Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders) is bringing his monumental 2024 film, Megalopolis, to select cities across the country. The tour kicks off at the Count Basie Center for the Arts on Sunday, July 20, 2025 at 7:00pm.



The

The Williams Center to Screen "Wayward Kin" by David Joseph Volino

(RUTHERFORD, NJ) -- After a four-year-long production process, filmmaker and New Jersey native, David Joseph Volino, is sharing the full-length feature, Wayward Kin, with local audiences. See the film for one night only at The Williams Center in Rutherford on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. The screening begins at 7:00pm with the cast and crew in attendance.



The

The ShowRoom presents ENCORE: Rock Cinema Returns! A Summer Series of Legendary Sound and Vision

(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- The ShowRoom Cinema is turning up the volume this summer with ENCORE: Rock Cinema Returns!, a series of must-see music films that combine incredible sound with captivating visuals. Screenings include The Who's Tommy; Pink Floyd: The Wall; Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains; and Streets of Fire.