I caught Lucid at Fantasia, right before Sugar Rot and I couldn’t have imagined a better pairing of uncompromising Riot grrrl feminist cinema. The germ of the Lucid started its life as a short, directed by Deanna Milligan. But for the feature length adaption she’s taken on a co-director – Ramsey Fendall, to expand on the story of the frustrated art school student and fast food worker in the late 90’s, who’s looking to break through her creative block to hopefully keep her art scholarship. Lucid also brings back the original lead from the short Caitlin Acken Taylor, to reprise her role as Mia Sunshine Jones, who’s frustrated she can’t seem to tap into her past as fuel for her creative spark.
One night her friends suggest a fortune teller, who just so happens to have an elixir to help with eliminating that block, which is turned into conversation hearts for easy consumption. We are then on this journey of self discovery as the title would lead you to believe, through lucid dreams where Mia discovers there’s a very valid reason for not remembering her childhood. While Lucid has this very real-life narrative, it’s supplemented by these surreal excursions into Mia subconscious thanks to the drug, where symbolism and narrative join forces to fill in the details.
Lucid’s period setting and dreamy and grainy visual language are flawlessly harnessed from 90s Mtv. Being someone who was a teen in that era and spent countless hours watching Music Television – when there were indeed music videos on it, it was as comforting as a warm blanket on a cold winter night. The dream sequences with their use of stop motion and collage animations, really threw it over the top by utilizing these visual tropes of music videos – to tell this story and be more than simply an aesthetic choice. It was something that even with its indie budget felt very intentional and gave the piece an overall confidence and look and feel that you don’t always get in the indie space.
This coupled with some intriguing casting and poppy performances delivers an assured vision that really caught me off guard with its ambitious spirit and heart. While there is this overarching story of someone trying to unlock their past, the film also has some painfully true discourse about the creative process and how sometimes someone must truly suffer for their art. Caitlin really manages to pull this off really intimate and raw performance, while also perfectly imbuing Mia as your typical insufferable 90s art school student. I think as someone who majored in art in the 90s, I can co-sign that. This along with a rather impressive supporting cast really helped to infuse this story with a pop-punk spirit that was a pure joy to behold.
Simply stated: Lucid is a phantasmagorical 90’s banger, whose period setting isn’t simply a nostalgic crutch, but instead an actual device to tell an intriguing story of its time. It’s an assured effort that feels meticulously crafted, yet effortlessly executed, as it speaks its truth with complete and utter confidence. It’s very rare when filmmakers mix period settings with nostalgia and not get lost in the sauce – if you will for their love of this thing, but Lucid stays the course and while you can obviously see there’s definitely some love for this time period, that is just one part of the filmmaker’s way of tackling this tumultuous tale.
