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.

Perfect for Robert Patterson who is a weird looking guy when not playing a vampire which best fits his face. Of course I only say that cause that was the first time I herd of the dude.I had a feeling that the damsel was an ironically titled movie and I was right. The synopsis tales a story of a good Christian boy out to save his fiance, and Patterson played this role so perfectly that it somewhat put a fault in the plot. I knew something was coming. Not a too over the top twist but the low key bizarre done was perfect.

There are very few farces made these days, so people aren't very used to the exaggerated and non-realistic elements of this genre. It's the same reason some of the Coen Brother movies don't connect with mainstream audiences. This time it's the Zellner Brothers, and they double down on the unusual genre elements by making it a farcical western. But if you're down for some off-beat cinema, what the Zellner's do here is pretty fantastic.As farces do, the story here takes some pretty drastic bait and switch turns as it sets up Pattinson's character as the traditional western hero - yet still gives you signs that all is not right with this guy. Indeed, he's a very bad man. And things get very tragic and slightly disturbing when he meets his love - the damsel who is not in distress until he shows up.I'll refrain from further spoilers, but I feel like people react to farces like the directors or writers don't know what they're doing. They do. And this one is a good one in that it packs more than one tragic punch by the end. The characters in this movie long to be part of something they can't and being part of. And it being the ruthless wild west, even if they get a moment's peace, it can be quickly taken away by violent men.I think this one might have legs as a bit of a cult movie, hopefully. It's not for everyone but that's all right. Looking forward to what else these original and imaginative filmmakers will come up with.

It was all right but nothing to write home about. Surprisingly funny at times tho. Robert Pattinson gives a solid enough performance, I did not expect that he can do comedy but in that film he did it better than the dramatic scenes that he dramatically overacted. The concept itself was good on paper but the Zellner bros failed with the execution at times. David Zellner gives a very solid performance in the film, possibly the best of the film. Mia Wasikowska was also fine but there were scenes she overacted as well. The soundtrack was pretty good and I liked the general look of the film, not only the cinematography but also the production design was good, although the film apparently had a limited budget. Its still nothing I would desire to watch again any time soon as it did not do anything inspiring (except maybe the narrative, which was at times a bit unexpected) . It had also some cute moments.