Dust Bunny Review: Monsters We Make

Bryan Fuller has spent years building worlds on television that nobody else could imagine. The sugary nightmare of Pushing Daisies. The operatic terror of Hannibal. The endless possibilities of space in Star Trek: Discovery. With Dust Bunny, his first feature film as director, he brings that same unclassifiable vision to a story about a little girl who believes a hitman is her only hope against the monster under her bed. It’s odd, it’s gorgeous to look at, and it won’t work for everyone. But when it works, it really works, creating a kind of magic few filmmakers get so right their first time at bat.

Ten-year-old Aurora (Sophie Sloan, making her international debut) lives in a decaying apartment complex near Chinatown with foster parents who don’t seem to care much about her either way. She watches her mysterious neighbor in 5B through her window, fascinated by the aloof man. One night she follows him and sees him take down armed men who ambushed him while hiding beneath a dragon costume. To her, he’s slain an actual dragon. Now she needs him to do the same for the creature that ate her family.

Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt) plays the neighbor (known as Resident 5B), a man of few words who gets to play action hero without needing a superhero franchise. He’s become one of those actors where I’ll watch whatever he chooses, because he always chooses interesting things. His scenes with Sloan, a Scottish newcomer doing a flawless American accent, have a Léon quality to them. She’s sharp but never cloying. He’s guarded, but never cruel. Sigourney Weaver (Alien) shows up as a handler with style to spare, clearly enjoying the chance to be wicked. She carries one of the most ingeniously strange weapons I’ve seen on screen in a while.

Fuller and cinematographer Nicole Whitaker create a world that sits between childhood fantasy and creeping dread. Every color feels slightly wrong and washed out. Every set seems tilted at an inconvenient angle. Costumes from Catherine Leterrier and Olivier Beriot dress each character in ways that tell you who they are before they speak. Isabella Summers, a longstanding member of Florence + the Machine, provides a score that drifts between dreamy and unsettling. The monster itself, built by Legacy Effects, manages to be both scary and strangely lovable.

I saw this at a Midnight Madness screening in Toronto, and I’ll be honest: by the finale things got swirly. Spectacle started outpacing story. But until then, watching Weaver be deliciously sharp, and watching game supporting threats Sheila Atim (The Woman King), Rebecca Henderson (The Good House), and David Dastmalchian (Oppenheimer) circle our young hero, I was fully on board. Fuller knows exactly what he wants visually, and that certainty carries the film through its thinner stretches.

Fuller’s work has always taken time to find its people. (Go watch Pushing Daisies right now if you haven’t, especially if the rumors that it’s about to be revived are true.) Dust Bunny might be one to discover at home, late at night, when you want something beautiful and creepy to tuck you in.