The Artful Escape doesn’t just feature the striking lateral camera tracking shots and delightfully deadpan line delivery from the likes of The Grand Budapest Hotel or The Darjeeling Limited, it also features a wonderfully offbeat Jason Schwartzman-style character. The sense of catharsis is palpable as you ‘press X to shred a sci-fi guitar odyssey’ during The Artful Escape’s opening moments and rip some hot licks on a hilltop that make the Rocky Mountains rock even harder.įrom there, it felt as though I’d been whisked away into the pleasantly peculiar inside of a Wes Anderson film, albeit one with substantially more aliens. He isn’t turned on by the humdrum of the humble strum for him, the best tonic is a freshly shredded pentatonic. With the shadow of his successful folk singing uncle looming large over his nascent musical career, Francis struggles with the stress of trying to be something he’s not as he prepares to make his onstage debut at a musical festival in his hometown of Calypso, Colorado. Although it features numerous beasts from other worlds to confront along the way, the major villain in The Artful Escape takes the form of a demon that I found far more relatable than any evil alien threat Francis’ own sense of self doubt.

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