Gogal (2008) User Reviews

Grim from beginning to end.

[zarquon-656-544974 · 2/10 · 8 February 2010]

Before the screening of this film at the Leeds International Film Festival, viewers were warned that when it had played at Cannes, half the audience had walked out. If I'd known how bad the film was, I'd have done the same and saved myself 90 minutes of boredom and 30 minutes of gut-wrenching nastiness.

For the most part, Gogal is turgid, dull and pointless. In many shots it's difficult to see where the action, if you can call two people walking across a bleak landscape "action", is taking place.

When it comes to the final reel, it appears that the director either woke up or thought they'd best put in something to wake the audience up. The final scenes are truly horrific and shouldn't be seen, ever. I've seen some shocking stuff in my time but this takes the crown.

Exhausted from watching this.

[mmushrm · 1/10 · 19 July 2012]

Im exhausted from watching this movie. It is plain awful.

This movie is shot to mimic old 8mm movies. From the shaky shots, to the grainy texture to the washed out colours. Most of the movie's shots are people walking outside in a bleak industrial setting. The combination of which makes for photography thats hard on the eyes.

The movie is as boring as heck, just the 2 main characters walking, chasing each other and fighting each other. The camera work actually makes the action scenes even harder to watch. Imagine old 8mm film thats moving rapidly.

The story pointless. In fact I would say this movie is retardploitation movie (as opposed to sexploitation, nunsploitation etc). My apologies for the very unpolitically correct term as I cant find a better term. Its shows a mentally retarded girl being exploited and abused by a probably mentally retarded, but at a more capable level, guy. He whores her out, beats her etc. In fact a full 3/4 of the movie is like that.

The final 1/4 of the movie came out of nowhere its like the producers realized they made a film of nothing and needed a shocker ending. It is pretty shocking, bloody and gruesome. But I really don't see how or why it ties into the movie.

This movie reeks of art house pretentiousness. But IMO, you can dress it up as art all you like but a load of manure is still a load of manure.