The set up does have a cruel efficiency. Just get that cat out. There’s some real hit and miss in the working out of that set up, with good jokes—blowing the cat up with bellows—being neutralized by stinkers (discarding the catnip). The film does hit its stride with a string of well-executed bits. The dog’s lip, and the storm of battery that follows. The dropped rock and the elaborate rope drag. Sigmund Fried telling Claude that after a nightmare we should just tell ourselves it never happened.
The whole inverted room, nailing the furniture to the ceiling stuff is tremendous, and the creators keep elaborating and topping in wonderful manner. They turn the camera up side down, which is both novel and consistent with what Claude is feeling. Liquid goes up, inexplicably. Were they thinking about the airplane sequence in The Great Dictator? Then it’s the paintings, both this way and that. And a fish tank! Nightmares and malice, and a reminder that a lot of these/films can basically succeed on the strength of a single bright moment.