Forest fire scene.

Forest fire scene.

The protagonists of the film are two talented physicists – one of them leaves the city for the countryside and becomes a meteorologist, the other establishes a brilliant career in science. Both are bombarded by moral dilemmas regarding their choice in life.

EO is a donkey working for a Polish circus. He performs in an act with Kasandra, who loves and protects him. When Animal Rights activists help get the circus shut down, EO is taken away, and is brought to a horse stable to work. In the truck being transported, and at the stables, EO sees horses running free, and being pampered. After knocking over a shelf of trophies, EO is sent to a farm, where he seems depressed and won’t eat. He gives rides to children through woods, where trees continue to be cut down to create space for man.

Kevin "Freak" Dillon is a 12-year-old boy suffering from Morquio syndrome and living with his mother Gwen "Fair Gwen" Dillon. He is extremely intelligent and is obsessed with flights of fancy, but due to his disability, he walks with leg braces and crutches. Meanwhile, Maxwell "Max" Kane is a 14-year-old beastly yet good-natured boy with learning challenges and living with his maternal grandparents Susan "Gram" and Elton "Grim" Pinneman. He has flunked the seventh grade twice and is tormented by Tony "Blade" Fowler, a teenage delinquent who is the leader of a teenage bully gang named the "Doghouse Boys". When Kevin is assigned as Max's reading tutor, they form a bond of friendship over the similar circumstances they share, such as both being outcasts in their school and their fathers abandoning them.

"Manifesto" has no plot, and the only thing tying the ~dozen scenes together is Cate Blanchett. Her monologues range from common hippie platitudes to batshit insanery, and she moves deftly between the dozen starkly different characters. There's some beautiful cinematography, but the show is stolen by Blanchett's incredible performances.

Highly recommended for folks that like "artsy" movies with no plot, or anyone who needs 90 minutes of solid Cate Blanchett.

~45 minutes in. This brief little moment with Leatherface might be my favorite scene in the movie. The way he lumbers to the window, glances anxiously outside, and puts his head in his hands... without a word we see a glimpse of his humanity. Is Leatherface a psychotic murderer, taking joy in killing these teens? Or is he the homemaker, protecting his family's property from these strangers who barged in? What's actually going on in his head?

Love this flick.

In a Kafkaesque setting, John Murdoch, an amnesiac man who, finding himself suspected of murder, attempts to discover his true identity and clear his name while on the run from the police and a mysterious group known as the "Strangers".