Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Simply A Masterpiece

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I work at a small independent theater and almost want to actively discourage people from seeing this. I understand that time and energy went into this but it was just such a waste of time.

"The Old West is not a certain place in a certain time; it's a state of mind. It's whatever you want it to be. -" Tom MixI should have liked the Zellner brothers' Western comedy, Damsel, much better than I did. It has elements of Mel Brooks and the Coen brothers when they mine the satire of a genre very long in the tooth. The difference: writing. Brooks with his inspired goofiness (Blazing Saddles) and the Coens with their light-hearted larceny (Raising Arizona), have characters using language much smarter than they are, whereas The Zellners' lines are deadpan but dull even though they use elevated diction as the Coens so often do. Using contemporary lingo like "win win" and "real deal" doesn't titillate as it should. In addition, Zellners' language lacks strong affinity with bigger issues.Samuel (Robert Pattinson), a rich pioneer, engages a sham preacher, Henry (David Zellner), to officiate at Samuel's wedding to Penelope (Mia Wasikowska). In their journey with a miniature horse, gift to Penelope (not the waiting Penelope of the Odyssey), the two must deal with their naiveté and the vagaries of raw Western staples like rot-gut whiskey, duplicitous Indians, and bad campfire ballads (Samuel's ballad to Penelope, called My Honeybun, is a weak companion to Brooks' notorious campfire scene) While this set-up is rich fodder for satire, most of the jokes fall as flat as Penelope's affect and as dry as the joke about a fool in a barrel being strung up for no obvious reasons. Westerns are ripe for satire, but the flat line here comes not from the fine performances but the tepid minimalist script and uninspired cinematography. Wasikowska is marvelous as the independent and bitter love interest, Pattinson showing once again that he is much more than a teen heart-throb. The Zellners have the right motif about loneliness; they just need to beef up the languid language and droll action.

Are film schools and institutes like Sundance and AFI giving young filmmakers some sort of mandatory class on "revisionist westerns?" I get the feeling that every grant-supported filmmaker is in some sort of race to make the world's most boring "lyrical reimagining of the west." The Ballad of Lefty Brown seemed like the nadir for this genre, but Damsel just said "hold my beer."This may be the world's first Twitter Western. It seems to have been made for the limited purpose of being praised on blogs and in Facebook by milquetoast NPR liberals: the kind who can't tell the difference between Naomi Klein and Gina Haspel. The movie is polite enough, at least, to essentially tell you exactly what to say in your laudatory blog post or tweet; the subtext is essentially the text.Damsel squanders beautiful photography, an evocative score, and a dream cast on hours of tedium, terrible attempts at absurdist comedy with sub-Mad-Magazine daffiness ("You are convicted of skullduggery, skullthuggery, and skullbuggery"), and cringe-inducing audience pandering. (Does it count as a spoiler if I tell you that all white men are rapists and racists?)Before the big twist a third of the way in, the movie is tiring but bearable (like Meek's Cutoff but with bad jokes and great music). The twist adds five minutes of surprises and interest - and then the next hour or so is essentially the filmmakers running out the clock, hoping to drag this pile to feature length.When your movie makes The Little Hours and Your Highness look like Bicycle Thieves and Rashomon, you're not on your way into the canon.

Quirky comes to mind. out of the ordinary. unusual. fun. this is not a film for young people, but for movie goers old enough to enjoy good film making. the plot doesn't matter, but it's a frontier woman dealing with circumstances as they present themselves. the directors have a hard time wrapping things up, but that's all right. and it's always a pleasure to see Robert forster. he never quite "made" it. who knows why!