This movie looks great if you like stereotypical flop house sets. Every character every set, every bit of body language is a cliché. From the dancing hooker to the stilted poorly delivered dialog. The movie feels as if there were no rehearsals and the actors were either reading their lines off of cue cards or checking their scripts between takes. I found it impossible to suspend disbelief long enough to embrace the story. The rushed line delivery alone dooms this film.
The film stock looks good and some of the shots are great, but while the girls tears from the closet start to seem like good film making, the sex scene she watches is too abstract and blurry to be disturbing enough to draw a reaction from the viewer. The murder that the film hinges on is cut away from after a few short seconds. And the attempts to violate our sensibilities with a corpse are straight out of weekend at Bernies. It is clear that the director wanted to disturb the audience, but did not have the guts to take it to a level that could possibly inspire an emotional response.
Save your valuable time and watch something better. If you are looking for gritty and disturbing, take it as far as you can go and check out Irreversible (The most difficult to watch film I know of). If you are looking for a well acted character piece, try American Buffalo. If you want realistic hard edged urban drama, see Fresh. Any of these films will be a far better use of your time.
The film stock looks good and some of the shots are great, but while the girls tears from the closet start to seem like good film making, the sex scene she watches is too abstract and blurry to be disturbing enough to draw a reaction from the viewer. The murder that the film hinges on is cut away from after a few short seconds. And the attempts to violate our sensibilities with a corpse are straight out of weekend at Bernies. It is clear that the director wanted to disturb the audience, but did not have the guts to take it to a level that could possibly inspire an emotional response.
Save your valuable time and watch something better. If you are looking for gritty and disturbing, take it as far as you can go and check out Irreversible (The most difficult to watch film I know of). If you are looking for a well acted character piece, try American Buffalo. If you want realistic hard edged urban drama, see Fresh. Any of these films will be a far better use of your time.