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Reviews
Simon Killer (2012)
Portrait of a Psychopath
"Superficial charm and average intelligence. Untruthfulness and insincerity. Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience." All the attributes of a psychopath are handled brilliantly by Antonio Campos and executed flawlessly by Brady Corbet. This film has been on my mind for a few days as I remember the edgy scenes with actors half off the screen and my wishing I could just nudge the camera a little bit to see what's going on... although it would not have mattered. The story here is powerful and tells a tale of a manipulative and mentally unbalanced character, but that's not really why I liked the film so much. What blew my mind is the visual treatment, the blasts of audio, the unforgiving sex and the feeling I was looking at an accident I could not turn away from. Lots of similarity to the films of Haneke and Dumont but taken to the next level with an uncompromising cellphone video sensitivity.
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Amazing Physical Effect
This film had a surprising physical effect on me. After 15 minutes of artsy shaky-cam filmography, I was already feeling uncomfortable and dizzy. Then that cute little Hushpuppy concocted her unique gravy and cat food meal. At that point I actually had to suppress a bit of vomit that was trying to escape from my stomach. Usually I'm OK with down home cookin' but combined with the shaky cam and the dirty unhealthy environment, I guess it overwhelmed me. Little Hushpuppy goes on to burn her own home down with the cat food and gravy, which creates lots of excitement in the plot line. After that I had a huge headache and was unable to follow the story. I think her father eventually dies and she burns him.
Looper (2012)
It Got Worse And Worse
It started out OK, but I lost interest in about 5 minutes. I thought the idea was compelling (sending people back in time to be executed) but then it got confusing to the point where it was laughable. Lots of people running around shooting stupidly designed weapons. A child is shown getting shot, which was bothersome. The tender moments of this film are about as meaningful as a fabric softener commercial. Even the cars of the future are pathetic in this film. Maybe the director used up the budget on actors and couldn't hire anyone proficient for anything else. Too bad Mystery Science Theater 3000 is off the air, because it would have been perfect for this dog of a film.
Cosmopolis (2012)
Is It Over Yet?
I couldn't wait for it to end. I kept wishing someone would use some voice inflection. I hope to forget about this film as soon as possible. It was absolutely terrible.
I suppose some people will watch this boring self-serving waste of philosophical hogwash, then relentlessly replay the poignant observations of these ridiculously banal characters with idiotic lines like "death is a scandal". I would prefer a root canal as opposed to witnessing such crap.
I hope I never have to watch such a forced display of shallow intellectualism like this ever again. I used to have respect for Cronenberg but this is one sour lemon of a film. Even the soundtrack is spineless and stupid.
For those that enjoy an engaging and interesting film, skip this one. I notice there are other warnings about this film and I wish I had read them before cringing through this despicable piece of trash.
Too bad they couldn't have used live rats. But then again, they would have upstaged the dreadful acting