Sam Lowry is a man trying to find the woman who appears in his dreams while trying to navigate through the overly bureaucratic and needlessly complicated totalitarian dystopia of the future.

There’s something really special about films like “Brazil,” that have a future so technically different from probable reality yet so realistic. The 1985 film envisioned a future largely reliant on computers, and still adheres to strict paperwork for all manners. This world seems to operate entirely off paperwork, it requires a signature to be able to sign a form, three forms just to enter a line, and three lines just to get another form so you can use the bathroom.

“Brazil” is a satire on the needless red tape that comes with bureaucracy and the inverse relationship of government control and basic freedoms. “Brazil” takes concerns about how the government’s power can affect freedoms and raises it to a maximum level. You’re charged with the fees from your own arrest, even if it’s wrongful, and being detained for too long can ruin your credit score. Your possessions and life are owned by the state that is seemingly all powerful. In fact the only weakness of this all powerful police state seems to be its own bumbling incompetence through needless bureaucratic red tape and paperwork.

“Brazil” is the kind of movie that manages to look great for a relatively low budget. Despite having an overall budget of $15 million and being created before mainstream CGI breached into the filmmaking industry, it looks much better than films today that costed three times more to make, creating a realistic version of the future that we will likely never see, all using practical effects.

There’s a core difference between most British comedies compared to American comedies, and “Brazil” certainly is a British comedy. One thing of note is that despite being a comedy, there’s not really a single moment that could be considered a “laugh out loud” moment.

There’s a lot of subtlety in the humor of “Brazil” that can be missed if enough attention isn’t given to it, as most of the humor comes through the form of clever wordplay or ironic visuals. The problem that comes with British comedies usually turns out to be pacing, and unfortunately “Brazil has that problem as well. The movie is long, and really could benefit from shortening its runtime. There’s a school of thought that thinks after every film a director should be forced to remove about fifteen to twenty minutes of a film by removing unimportant parts or aspects from the film. While there’s no scenes that need to be removed, there certainly is a lot of dead time that could be cut from the movie, or been shot quicker, that would really benefit the pacing, especially early on.

Reportedly, the Tom Cruise was originally considered for the role of main character Sam Lowry instead of Jonathan Pryce do ended up playing him, and frankly this was the best choice they could make. Jonathan Pryce absolutely sells the character of Sam Lowry in a way someone like Tom Cruise never could. Sam’s a cog in the machine, a lonely largely unimportant mid-level bureaucrat. An average Joe. One that Jonathan Pryce certainly pulls off, but heartthrob/action hero Tom Cruise could not. Perhaps he could’ve been Henry Tuttle, action hero and renegade air conditioning specialist, but fortunately he’s played by Robert De Niro, who is a real treat in this film. He’s easily one of the most relatable and likable characters in “Brazil”, and watching him really is a lot of fun.

“Brazil” is the rare kind of comedy film that gets audiences thinking about more than crass humor and instead manages to be a thoughtful look at bureaucratic society while still being a good science fiction and comedy.

“Brazil” has a runtime of two hours twenty-two minutes, and is rated R for some strong violence.