Mythic Continent: Movies That Find the Fantastic in America

Fantastical and otherworldly stories so often riff on the myths and landscapes of Europe, but the explosive popularity of Ryan Coogler's Sinners, with its echo of the myth of Robert Johnson, reminds us that there can be strange powers afoot right here in the good old USA.

This beloved adaptation of The Odyssey, O Brother, Where Art Thou? follows convicts Ulysses, Pete and Delmar as they escape their chain gang to begin a picaresque journey across the south in search of treasure, freedom, and estranged wives. Far from merely updating the ancient epic, O Brother (like Sinners) mines the richness of classic folk and blues music to create a mythic-feeling, vanished America. One standout example of this blend of influences comes as Ulyssess and the gang encounter the infamously irresistible song of the Sirens, this time appearing not has half-woman, half-bird creatures but simple washerwomen singing an eerily beautiful rendition of “Didn't’ Leave Nobody but the Baby." The effect not only adds a mystical sheen to the nostalgic pull of American folk music, but makes the Homeric myth feel unstuck from time, like one could find oneself stumbling into it at any moment.

Though not overtly fantastical, there's a barely hidden madness lurking beneath the quaint normality of Robert Altman’s 3 Women. We open on the Purple Sage Apartments (cool name), pleasantly situated in a California spa town (beautiful), which happens to include among its amenities a swimming pool decorated with a disturbing paintings of scaly, humanoid creatures, violently emerging from an immense labyrinth (Aaagghh!!??). Drawing on deeply American themes of envy and self-actualization the film follows two Purple Sage roommates (Sissy Spacek, and Shelly Duval) as their mutual jealousy and obsession ferments into an eerie swapping and blending of personalities. By film's end Altman seems to be hinting at something cursed about the American unconscious, riddled with impossible desires and haunted by soul-scarring crimes committed on a vast, ungraspable continent.

Described by director Jim Jarmusch as a “psychedelic western,” Dead Man follows Johnny Depp as William Blake, a city-boy accountant on a Kafkaesque journey into the frontier. Absurd comedy, sudden violence, an acidly epic soundtrack from Neil Young, and the spooky black-and-white aesthetic combine into a dreamlike atmosphere where anything might happen. All this, plus a hilarious turn from First Nations actor Gary Farmer, and a script free of stereotypes that meaningfully distinguishes between different indigenous peoples. Dead Man is a “Weird West” flick that finds the real in the surreal.

While his cult favorite The Lighthouse would also fit here, Robert Eggers's 2015 masterpiece The Witch captures the cold terror of the New England woods, and embeds the audience in the Puritan view of the supernatural like no film before. As we watch one particularly devout family tear itself apart in the aftermath of their baby’s disappearance, audience members will find themselves in agonizing sympathy with all perspectives. Meanwhile the actual witch (and the mysterious “Black Phillip”) lurk just beyond.