Dracula

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An inimitable social chronicler, Radu Jude expands the dystopian visions of Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (NYFF61) and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (NYFF59) by connecting vampire mythos to seemingly everything in our troubled times. His Dracula is less a spin on Bram Stoker and (per the film’s presenter) “more like Frankenstein’s monster,” variously following the madcap chase of two actors, adapting the first-ever Romanian vampire novel, and chronicling blood-soaked misdeeds around a video-game sweatshop. Stinging critiques of AI, capitalism, and cultural degradation are buttressed with meditations on vampire stories (F.W. Murnau, Francis Ford Coppola) and wide-ranging cultural allusions (Beckett, Chaplin). Dracula exhibits a gleeful, chaotic vulgarity, yet Jude’s sideways vampire history concludes on a note of reconciliation and hope. A 1-2 Special release.