User Reviews

Excess Flesh is about two roommates - one a mildly overweight woman with no self confidence and the other a beautiful and promiscuous woman, who feed off each other. The emptiness and cruelty of modern life underscored by an excessive concern about the way one looks and what one eats is one of the major themes of this film. I was reminded of this quote by Michel Housellebecq - "Sexuality is a system of social hierarchy" while watching Excess Flesh. Fans of Houellebecq's work and the Irvine Welsh novel Sex Lives of Siamese Twins might enjoy Excess Flesh, which is not really a horror film.

The director's style - lots of close ups to underscore the grotesque culture of gluttony grated on my nerves after a while. Most of the action takes place indoors because the overweight girl rarely leaves her apartment and the film is told from her point of view. The dramatic indoor scenes are interspersed with visuals of large city buildings and streets - I'm not sure what they were supposed to indicate. The performances were decent I guess. But frankly, I wouldn't recognize any of the actors if they turned up in another film.

(4/10)

Few things gross me out to the point where I'm compelled to turn away from the screen, "Excess Flesh" thrived on this aspect of filmmaking. I can barely eat food in public, nonetheless watch emotionally disturbed women munch on my favorite late snacks zoomed in and shot in slow motion. The imagery and visuals can get a bit annoying and overdone, but maybe that is the director's aim in placing a psychological effect on the viewer. I feel like there is an overall point to this movie, but the dramatic scenes and chaotic ultra abuse kind of distort which direction I feel the movie is going in. It has a rather predictable twist and hits the emotions oddly with various traumas explored through extremes. Plenty of gross out sound effects and disturbing music scores only amplify the dysfunction of these wilder moments.

My main take on the movie as a whole is the exploration of eating disorders, low self esteem, narcissism, and the vicious cycle in general that physical and emotional abuse perpetuate from victim to victim. I enjoyed the performance of the main character, her level of crazy was pretty entertaining and I found her kind of hot at certain points in the film (but that's a conversation reserved for my therapist). I kept picturing her snappy emotions and aggressive/eratic behavior being played well as the portrayal of "Baby" in "The Devil's Rejects", not to take anything away from my future wife Sherri Moon... The roommate was a very easy to hate character and we can all relate to knowing a woman or two like her. Even when you feel like you should empathize with her, you really struggle to, or at least I did.

A decent film at best, due to the confusing scenes, over the top disgusting visuals, and an unoriginal twist. For something a little bit different, a lot a bit gross, and completely weird, it hits the spot, but don't think about the movie too hard or you'll probably be disappointed. Also, probably not the best choice for date night/movie night. Unless, you both met on the Dark Web.

Most reviewers have gotten it right as far as the acting and style on this movie, so I won't add much as far as that goes.

If you watch this one more than once, it should be obvious that the story is not about two roommates, but one woman struggling with body dysmorphia.

The character's name is Jill, but she looks like Jennifer. The Jennifer personality may have been her original personality, or it may have been created as a defense mechanism to hide all the feelings of confidence and self worth, while loading up the other personality with guilt, regret, and self loathing. This was created during or after her marriage to an emotionally abusive partner who, as it is depicted in the extremely twisted and weird reality sex show sequence, would constantly tell her how disgusting and unattractive she was. This created Jill. The personality that binge eats.

This is made clear through several key scenes. The two scenes where Jill and Jennifer are both in the presence of someone else (waking up with Rob, and on the curb with the police), Jennifer goes unnoticed and does not speak or even move. She is not acknowledged by anyone but Jill.

Then, in the scene where Jill opens her front door and the woman snaps cell phone photos of her, the photos are shown later to actually be photos of Jennifer. Despite that the woman's name is actually Jill, Jill is the one who does not exist in physical form. The appearance of Jill is a mental manifestation of her body dysmorphia.

Then finally in the last scene, when Jill injects the talent agent with that nasty Draino stuff she concocted, she leans over, and once again, you can see in the reflection that it's Jennifer.

Jennifer (Mary Loveless) and Jill (Bethany Orr) are the odd couple. Jennifer is a model and Jill is 130 pound bulimic. Jill's mother suffers from substance abuse and Jill is clearly not wrapped too tight. Jennifer has gotten out of an abusive relationship and mistreats Jill. Jennifer pushes Jill until we reach the picture on the DVD cover.

We get a lot of close ups of the girls eating and smacking their lips, talking while eating, and spitting out their food. They rented the apartment with the chains in the wall, something that must be an option in LA.

I imagine this is supposed to me a story of two abused people who come to live together and make matters worse. I got bored watching them eat scene after scene after scene. More drama than thriller. It was like watching "Knock Knock" without the guy plus food.

Guide: F-word, sex, nudity (Bethany Orr, Mary Loveless)