Unicorn Store

[osprey_archer]

In a different movie, the heroine of Unicorn Store might be someone’s manic pixie dream girl. Kit is a quirky, artistic dreamer who just got kicked out of art school because the professors did not appreciate her rainbow kitten aesthetic.

I wouldn’t call Unicorn Store a deconstruction of the manic pixie dream girl trope, exactly, so much as an attempt to give that trope interiority. Most movies look at the manic pixie dream girl from the outside, as a desirable girl who will bring interest and joy to the man who wins her (in fact, it’s fairly clear that Kit’s staid older boss hopes Kit will have that effect on his life). But Brie Larson, who both directs the movie and stars as Kit, takes Kit as the viewpoint character, and explores how this quirkiness has affected her life.

In some ways, it enriches Kit’s life. There’s a scene at the beginning when Kit is still at art school, painting a rainbow-hued self-portrait that takes up a huge block of wall, where you can see her pleasure and concentration as she works on this portrait: she’s totally in the moment, filled with joy as she does this work.

But it’s also isolated her. People (including her art school professors) don’t always get this aesthetic; the movie suggests that she has trouble making friends (“We hoped maybe you had a human friend,” Kit’s mother comments at one point). She’s so wrapped up in her own vision that it sometimes makes her self-centered.

So when The Store contacts Kit, telling her that she can get a pet unicorn if she can just fulfill a few requirements, Kit jumps at the chance. A unicorn friend who will love her forever seems like it will solve her isolation without requiring any big changes on her part - or at least so she hopes, until the Store manager (Samuel Jackson, who plays the part with tinsel in his hair, and is clearly having a marvelous time) tells her that before she can adopt a unicorn, she needs to create “an atmosphere of love” in which it can live.

The set-up has intrigued me ever since I heard about the movie, but now that I’ve seen it, I feel that the execution was uneven. It didn’t embrace its aesthetic quite as wholeheartedly as perhaps it needed to (although I give it props for telling a serious story with a rainbow unicorn kitten aesthetic at all), and it didn’t set up the dimensions of Kit’s problem quite as well as it should have.

In particular, I think we needed just a little more time at the art school (perhaps just one conversation with the art professor who flunks Kit might have done it) - set up what the art school means to Kit so we know what it means when she loses it. Similarly, although we hear that Kit has problems making friends, we needed a bit more show-don’t-tell on this. And because her problems are a bit fuzzy, the solution isn’t (and probably couldn’t be) entirely satisfying.

Comments

[kore]

I admit, I almost don't want to ever see this because I don't know what could really live up to "Brie Larson is a rainbow girl and Samuel L. Jackson wants to give her a unicorn." (Did you see their carpool karaoke episode after Captain Marvel? It was beyond cute.)

[osprey_archer]

I feel that this movie was so close to achieving its full potential without ever quite managing to snap everything into place. Still, it's Brie Larson's directorial debut, so maybe she'll find her feet after a movie or two, and I do want to give her props for telling a story that embraces the whole rainbow unicorn aesthetic, because you just don't see it that often.

Although the Birds of Prey gifs I've seen definitely suggest that there's an element of that in Harley's costuming. Maybe rainbow unicorn aesthetic is coming into its own?

[silverusagi]

I watched this, but I have no deep thoughts, lol. I liked it, but probably not enough to watch it again? I kind of wanted her to get the unicorn!

And obviously Samuel L Jackson can do anything he wants.

[osprey_archer]

I understand why the movie ended with Kit not getting the unicorn... but I too wanted her to get the unicorn. Get the unicorn, Kit! GET THE UNICORN.

[rachelmanija]

I refused to watch this until I had been spoiled for whether or not she gets the unicorn. Once I found out she does not, I had no interest in watching it.

I write for everyone who wants a story about actually getting the rainbow unicorn flying kitten.

[silverusagi]

I refused to watch this until I had been spoiled for whether or not she gets the unicorn

A valid life choice.

What IS it with stories about magic or other worlds being about giving them up?!

[osprey_archer]

I was briefly afraid that the ending was going to be "unicorns don't even exist," and at least we dodged that bullet, but obviously the best possible ending for this movie is the one where Kit rides out of the unicorn store on the back of a magnificent unicorn, its mane and tail flowing in the breeze, while her lovestruck new boyfriend who thought the unicorn store was a scam gazes on in awe.

Then he gets on behind her and they ride the unicorn into the sunset together. END.

[rachelmanija]

Yes! That would be good.

I hate fantasy where the lesson is "growing up means giving up fantasy." Who is the audience for that? People who did give up fantasy won't watch a fantasy, and people who didn't will feel lectured.

[asakiyume]

The ninja girl is watching through all of Community on Netflix, and apparently near the end, Brie Larson appears as a quirky girlfriend for one of the characters (the quirky one)--so she had that vibe going for her even back in the day.

[osprey_archer]

I bailed on a Community a couple seasons before the end, so I missed Brie Larson as the quirky girlfriend! I never would have guessed that quirky was part of her vibe; my first Brie Larson experience was Captain Marvel, where she's not quirky at all.

[asakiyume]

We've only just begun watching Community; the ninja girl warned us it begins to pale (she has high tolerance and also completist tendencies, so she's soldiering on). What things made you bail? (We're still in Season 1)

[osprey_archer]

I got to the end of season 4. I've heard that people consider season 4 the weakest, because the showrunner changed for that season (the original showrunner came back for seasons 5 and 6), so I considered trying again with season 5... but then I learned that a couple of characters didn't come back for season 5, so I decided naaaaah, I'd served my time.

[asakiyume]

Also, Captain Marvel is really recent, right? So perhaps that's in part her asserting a new direction for herself.

[osprey_archer]

It came out the same year as Unicorn Store. So possibly she's trying to turn over a new leaf while also keeping the quirky old leaf intact?