I will always have a weird relationship to Lars Von Trier. Having a provocateur like him in a way too safe industry is interning but man does he make weird movies, too weird movies that sometimes don´t land. I had looked forward to watch Antichrist, I had heard it would be one of Triers best but sadly it never got to me, it lost me halfway through and I never really u understood what it was about. Was I supposed to read anything from this movie? If so, it needed to makes its message more clear.
After the loss of a child, a couple goes to source of their problems to fix their psyche
The movie starts out strong and actually hooked me in. The movie is unconfutable and handles it´s topics of mental problems in a real and frustrating way. But after I sat my first question mark as to why it would be the woods the woman was afraid of, I patiently waited to see how the movie would evolve. Turns out it goes in an opposite direction as to where I would think it was going, so the context clues didn't really matter I guess. I thought it would be a story about a woman's trauma and a man's attempt at fixing that trauma while not working on his own, but the movie escalates in another direction and, to me, becomes a bit directionless. It even turns to a Trier trope about his clear view on woman that just didn't fit this movie in any way. The movie had me at first but just drove itself in such a weird direction that it was hard for me to really enjoy it.
Another problem for me in general with this man's movies is when I see potential for great filmmaking immediately being butchered. There is some beautiful cinematography to begin with and I thought it looked gorgeous, the framing and execution is so well done, if not for a little bad with the child acting and some way to explicit foreshadowing. But I knew it was coming, I know the drill by now. Ugly camera handling, ugly zooms, shaky cam, and bad editing. It´s the point I know I would be yelled at, but you can call it stylish, I call it ugly and careless.
I think the overall problem for me is the movie sets up a bit of a mystery but never really gets to solving it in a satisfying way. Why is the woman afraid of these things, what is she actually afraid of? Why is the man trying to save her in one direction, when we are later told he knows a bit more than we thought? It also becomes a movie I don´t really get what it´s trying to tell me. Is it about grief? Motherhood? Frustration? I´m still not sure and the changing narrative doesn't really seemed interested in it either. It just evolves into something that bored and frustrated me more than keeping up the unconfutable and questionable feeling and tone the movie had set up. If it had kept that, this movie would have been a great understated horror movie, but it ends up becoming nothing really and in my opinion, too graduates at the end.
The acting is actually pretty good. Willem Dafoe plays his role great and the female lead is oaky, but they are butchered by the directing and storytelling. The woman is this manic and emotionally changing character while the man is a more of an understated calm character. These two don´t match, it´s great, but the movie doesn't do anything with this and the set up context clues, turns out to lead to absolutely nothing. The problem is I can see an amazing story in here! I can see a so deeply impactful story about grief and relation, but the nature of the movie just changes and the twist and sexual nature just don´t mix with what we are given here from the start of the movie and the actors.
This is a real none-genre movie for better and worse. The best I can come up with is something like horror or thriller but that only goes so far for me. I wish it was wearing a genre a bit more on its sleeves, it would make everything makes a bit more sense in its context.
Antichrist is frustrating to talk about, like most of this man's movies, because I actually want to like them! It sounds absurd when you see most of my ratings and reviews of Trier movies, but I genuinely see so much potential every time he makes anything. There is great concepts, ideas, executions and they feel so out of the norm, you get something that feels a bit more original and somehow more authentic. But the quest to frustrate me continues. It´s just poorly made on so many levels with such a disregard for storytelling that does nothing to me than frustrating me. I wish it would be something more than just the same 5 things he always says with his movies, it makes him predictable when his not supposed to be. I like aspects of this movie, but it ended up just frustrating me too much to actually liking it.
After the loss of a child, a couple goes to source of their problems to fix their psyche
The movie starts out strong and actually hooked me in. The movie is unconfutable and handles it´s topics of mental problems in a real and frustrating way. But after I sat my first question mark as to why it would be the woods the woman was afraid of, I patiently waited to see how the movie would evolve. Turns out it goes in an opposite direction as to where I would think it was going, so the context clues didn't really matter I guess. I thought it would be a story about a woman's trauma and a man's attempt at fixing that trauma while not working on his own, but the movie escalates in another direction and, to me, becomes a bit directionless. It even turns to a Trier trope about his clear view on woman that just didn't fit this movie in any way. The movie had me at first but just drove itself in such a weird direction that it was hard for me to really enjoy it.
Another problem for me in general with this man's movies is when I see potential for great filmmaking immediately being butchered. There is some beautiful cinematography to begin with and I thought it looked gorgeous, the framing and execution is so well done, if not for a little bad with the child acting and some way to explicit foreshadowing. But I knew it was coming, I know the drill by now. Ugly camera handling, ugly zooms, shaky cam, and bad editing. It´s the point I know I would be yelled at, but you can call it stylish, I call it ugly and careless.
I think the overall problem for me is the movie sets up a bit of a mystery but never really gets to solving it in a satisfying way. Why is the woman afraid of these things, what is she actually afraid of? Why is the man trying to save her in one direction, when we are later told he knows a bit more than we thought? It also becomes a movie I don´t really get what it´s trying to tell me. Is it about grief? Motherhood? Frustration? I´m still not sure and the changing narrative doesn't really seemed interested in it either. It just evolves into something that bored and frustrated me more than keeping up the unconfutable and questionable feeling and tone the movie had set up. If it had kept that, this movie would have been a great understated horror movie, but it ends up becoming nothing really and in my opinion, too graduates at the end.
The acting is actually pretty good. Willem Dafoe plays his role great and the female lead is oaky, but they are butchered by the directing and storytelling. The woman is this manic and emotionally changing character while the man is a more of an understated calm character. These two don´t match, it´s great, but the movie doesn't do anything with this and the set up context clues, turns out to lead to absolutely nothing. The problem is I can see an amazing story in here! I can see a so deeply impactful story about grief and relation, but the nature of the movie just changes and the twist and sexual nature just don´t mix with what we are given here from the start of the movie and the actors.
This is a real none-genre movie for better and worse. The best I can come up with is something like horror or thriller but that only goes so far for me. I wish it was wearing a genre a bit more on its sleeves, it would make everything makes a bit more sense in its context.
Antichrist is frustrating to talk about, like most of this man's movies, because I actually want to like them! It sounds absurd when you see most of my ratings and reviews of Trier movies, but I genuinely see so much potential every time he makes anything. There is great concepts, ideas, executions and they feel so out of the norm, you get something that feels a bit more original and somehow more authentic. But the quest to frustrate me continues. It´s just poorly made on so many levels with such a disregard for storytelling that does nothing to me than frustrating me. I wish it would be something more than just the same 5 things he always says with his movies, it makes him predictable when his not supposed to be. I like aspects of this movie, but it ended up just frustrating me too much to actually liking it.