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We had the trailer for Dust Bunny recently, but I didn’t watch it. I missed it to keep it spoiler-free in my head. I liked the idea of the movie, so I waited for it on VoD/streaming.
All I knew of the movie was that it starred Mads Mikkelsen and something about monsters. I love going into a movie cold.
Dust Bunny stars Mikkelsen, Sophie Sloan, David Dastmalchian, Sheila Atim, Rebecca Henderson, and Sigourney Weaver. Bryan Fuller is the writer and director.
The Story
As I said, I knew little about the story of Dust Bunny, apart from:
An eight-year-old girl asks her scheming neighbour for help in killing the monster under her bed that she thinks ate her family.
We meet young Aurora (Sloan), who’s having nightmares about a monster under her bed. She wakes up screaming, telling her parents not to walk on the floor, that’s where the monster lives.
She decides it is best to sleep on the fire escape, so the monster cannot get her. Late one night, she sees Intriguing Neighbour (Mikkelsen) walking home. She knows there’s something about him, so the next night follows him. She learns that he’s a killer, a killer of ‘monsters’.
Sadly, the monster kills the parents, and she’s left on her own. So, get some money, I won’t say how, because it’s amusing, but wants to hire him to kill the ‘dust bunny’ monster under her bed.
The intriguing neighbour thinks about the prospect of killing the monster. However, he knows real monsters are after him, other assassins out to kill him.
I don’t like to break movies down, but Dust Bunny is well-written and a good story.
The Cast
This movie reminded me a little of Leon: The Professional; A young girl who’s taken in by an assassin. This is the same, but different.
Mikkelsen is himself, a quiet guy, but bad ass with it. I would love to interview him, but I would be slightly terrified at the same time. His ‘intriguing neighbour’, as was listed on the IMDb, is as good as you would expect from him.
Weaver is really good in Dust Bunny as well. She plays the ‘intriguing neighbours’ handler, who seems to know who is trying to kill him, and she plays it slightly unhinged. She’s in the movie a lot more than I expected, and really stands out.
However, it’s young Sloan that steals the show. She’s the main focus and has to carry the movie, but she does it really well. Auroa is a lot cleverer than we first give her credit. She’s still a child, one who believes in monsters, but then, are the monsters real?
The ‘dust bunny’ kills her parents, so she has to do something to keep herself safe. Sloan plays her very well.
Production Design
One of the best things about Dust Bunny was the production design. Most movies these days look boring, with very few sets, mostly green screen, and just look ‘wrong’. I know the effects are stunning these days, but your brain knows none of it is real. It’s not filmed on a set, like the good old days.
None of Dust Bunny is real; however, they lean into it. The production design is stunningly beautiful, and looks like a combination of fantastic sets and over-the-top CG. This sounds odd, but the look of this movie was a joy to watch.
It reminded me of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director of The City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, and Amelie. Personally, I love the style of those movies. Amelie is a gorgeous movie to watch.
I wouldn’t say Dust Bunny is on the same level as Jeunet, but it was in the same style of overly visual production, which is a treat to soak up while going through the story. I haven’t seen this style for a while, and I loved it here.
Overall
Fuller created Hannibal, which starred Mikkelsen. I haven’t seen any of these, but I heard they were solid. The story for Dust Bunny is good; it’s well-written and keeps you hooked all the way through. I mean, it’s not genre-breaking, but it keeps you invested.
It looks like it was Fuller’s first time directing, and he does a very, very good job. The shots are beautiful, the characters are weird but believable, and the entire movie is just a treat to watch.
As I said, I went in cold and was very pleasantly surprised by Dust Bunny. I love it when this kind of thing happens. I’m giving the movie a full 5 stars, as it was new, different, and beautiful. It’s not a run-of-the-mill movie, as I mentioned; it’s like Leon in the style of Amelie. I will watch this again.
Dust Bunny is on VoD.
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