Welcome back for another addition of the Margot Robbie filmography watch through! After this week we are down to only 8 feature-length movies of Margot’s to cover. Well, until her future works are released. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves and instead focus on the task at hand. That’s right, a movie that had it not been for this watch through, would probably have never been on my radar…Dreamland (2019).
Title: Dreamland
Director: Miles Joris-Peyrafitte
Released: April 13, 2019 – Premiere (Belgium – Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival), released theatrically on November 27, 2019 in Italy.
Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes
Watched via: VOD rental
Eugene Evans (Finn Cole) is a teenager growing up in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. His mother, Olivia (Kerry Condon), and step-father, George (Travis Fimmel), are struggling to hold onto their home and farm. Eugene helps out where he can, but he longs for a more exciting and fulfilling life.
Meanwhile, Allison Wells (Margot Robbie) is a notorious bank robber who is on the run. Legend has it that not only is she a bank robber, she’s also a cold-stoned killer. Unfortunately, her most recent robbery went sideways. Things escalated into a shootout, her partner took a bullet, and a young girl was killed in the crossfire.
As she is driving through the middle of nowhere to evade the police, Allison realizes her partner is dying from his wound. She takes off on foot, ditching the car, and her partner. Eventually she finds refuge in a barn. The same barn that just so happens to be on Eugene’s family farm.
Eugene is the one to discover her and immediately is faced with a choice. He can turn in Allison and collect the $10,000 reward for her capture, or he can agree to help Allison get to Mexico in exchange for $20,000.
Either way, there is a lot of money on the table.
What will Eugene do?
Do you ever walk away from a movie having enjoyed it but still feeling frustrated by it?
Well, that’s what I felt after finishing Dreamland (2019).
Here’s the thing, it wasn’t bad by any means. The cinematography from DP Lyle Vincent is stunning. He is able to capture the New Mexico landscapes in a way that makes you feel like you’re in the Dust Bowl. Additionally, the way he shoots the horizon, displaying just miles of nothing but open landscapes, helps you understand why Eugene, being the teenager that he is, wants a more exciting life.
Speaking of Eugene, I rather enjoyed Finn Cole in this role. He has this innocent charm about him that makes him a perfect fit here. Because of his innocence, he’s able to play Eugene in a way that makes the naivety of the character believable.
As for Margot, she rarely misses and that is true here as well. I mean this in the most positive of ways, imagine Harley Quinn as a bank robber in the 1930s and you have Allison Wells. She bucks traditional trends and uses her own charm to get out of sticky situations. Not a knock on Margot at all, but I just wish we dove more into her character.
That speaks to my main issue, and why I walked away feeling frustrated. Everything is surface level. The relationships, the backstory, it all lacks the depth necessary to elevate this from a “good” movie to a “great” movie.
Despite that, it is still a good movie. Dreamland (2019) is beautifully shot and features two strong performances. If you ever stumble upon it on streaming, definitely give it a watch. If you own a copy, give it a rewatch and see how it holds up.
So, what about you? Have you seen Dreamland (2019)?
If so, leave me a comment below or reach out on Bluesky and tell me what you thought!
As always, if you’d like to see what else I’ve been watching, you can follow me over on Letterboxd.