THE PLOT THUS FAR
An urban mystery unfurls as one man pieces together the surreal meaning of hundreds of cryptic tiled messages that have been appearing in city streets across the U.S. and South America.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
For three decades, strange plaques with messages about resurrecting the dead have mysteriously appeared on streets throughout North and South America, prompting director Jon Foy to seek out the story of their origin. Artist Justin Duerr, who began investigating the tiles in 1993, takes us on a tour of unusual and seemingly random clues, and in the process resurrects not the dead, but the innate human desire for magic and mystery.
The Toynbee Tiles have fascinated me for the better part of the last decade. While there’s been multiple theories about their reason for being, I say don’t question it. If someone really believes that urban messages about extraterrestrial resurrection makes people happy than leave it be. After all the mundane bullshit we have to put up with in the world, a little bizarre levity is fun. Justin Duerr tries to maintain this throughout the first hour of the film, but it ends up turning into staged crap at the end.
The DVD comes with deleted scenes, additional footage and director’s commentary. The A/V Quality is strong enough for an indie documentary, but there’s no audio support from the back channels. There’s a good documentary in what’s presented, but the deleted scenes show that the lack of focus was there from the beginning. That being said, you’ll still get a history of the Tiles. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase for the truly curious.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
