With images of a five-year-old studying a bound children’s book and a carver etching dragon motifs into wood, the film eases us into a world where everything feels handmade, including the dragon-which is computer-generated. In his captivating reimagining of the crass Disney kiddie film Pete’s Dragon, Lowery places a simple story about an orphan and a dragon in a non-specific “recent past” that both harks back to 1977, when the original movie was released, and creates a timeless world out of rural Americana.
Given its starting point, Lowery’s new film is even more impressive. And beyond the morality plays, the movie slakes a contemporary hunger for lyricism and grandeur. They cast giant shadows as they trigger traditional cowboy movie clashes between freedom and responsibility, loyalty and ethics. In that stunningly lyrical movie, outlaws and lawmen drive big old American cars, and they stride through Texas scrubland in muddy boots and weathered clothing.
He proved it in his debut feature, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (13), which unfolded in a gritty yet mythic 1970s Southwest. David Lowery has the creative alchemy to transform time and place into poetry.
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