I haven't reviewed a movie before, but after seeing this tonight, and seeing the reviews posted here, I felt it was necessary. I haven't seen the other movies referred to here (Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness), so take that into account.
This post may contain spoilers, as I think it's important to discuss the themes of the movie in context of its effectiveness, but I haven't, in my mind, given away important information that would spoil the ending or reveal a twist, as the guidelines suggest.
Positives: I thought the movie was visually engaging and there were interesting camera angles that added to the content of the scene. It seemed very thoughtfully directed and kept the viewers attention through lots of dialog and very little actual movement.
Negatives: This movie seemed overtly saturated and fixated on pedophilia and subtle shockery. Like an 8 year old cussing out grandma at Thanksgiving, once you step out of the moment you realize that there is some truly bizarre stuff in here. A mom telling her 12 year old son about getting "wet" on a date with a "real" man. There are tons of places where the line gets crossed between mother/son, and implied between father/son. Overtly sexual, pedophilic, and implicitly incestuous, there aren't many redeeming qualities to the themes of this movie. I've enjoyed dark movies, but I do not see the point of this one. It's as conflicted as it is shocking and, subtle as it is disturbing.
The movie is thought provoking along the lines of forgiveness and has some merit there. It provides ironic wit by adding lines like "an eye for an eye" (Jewish family). But overall this theme is dirtied, grimed, rusted and nearly lost in the overtness of it's otherwise perverse obsessions.
There is not a whole lot of depth to the characters. In some parts the dialog was excessively cheesy. Overall the characters seemed convincing, but utterly lost and dim in the light of changed perspective or growth (partly due to a very abrupt ending). Awkward is a very nice way to describe a lot of the interactions here--it is that at best. Hugely uncomfortable (mother-in-law sitting right next to me) with age- inappropriate interactions happening left and right. I did, however, find excellent ironic humor including Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) in a role as a ghost and ex-lover of a relationally confused character. There were other dark ironies that did make me kind of chuckle, but mixed between moments of shock and queasiness.
I'd argue that the dilemma of forgiveness developed in this movie could be much more easily related in an Aesop's fable, or from somewhere in the Torah, but if you prefer to wade through sexually perverse, disturbingly inappropriate movies to get your 'moral of the story' then this movie may be for you, otherwise I'm not sure what you'd get from it.
This post may contain spoilers, as I think it's important to discuss the themes of the movie in context of its effectiveness, but I haven't, in my mind, given away important information that would spoil the ending or reveal a twist, as the guidelines suggest.
Positives: I thought the movie was visually engaging and there were interesting camera angles that added to the content of the scene. It seemed very thoughtfully directed and kept the viewers attention through lots of dialog and very little actual movement.
Negatives: This movie seemed overtly saturated and fixated on pedophilia and subtle shockery. Like an 8 year old cussing out grandma at Thanksgiving, once you step out of the moment you realize that there is some truly bizarre stuff in here. A mom telling her 12 year old son about getting "wet" on a date with a "real" man. There are tons of places where the line gets crossed between mother/son, and implied between father/son. Overtly sexual, pedophilic, and implicitly incestuous, there aren't many redeeming qualities to the themes of this movie. I've enjoyed dark movies, but I do not see the point of this one. It's as conflicted as it is shocking and, subtle as it is disturbing.
The movie is thought provoking along the lines of forgiveness and has some merit there. It provides ironic wit by adding lines like "an eye for an eye" (Jewish family). But overall this theme is dirtied, grimed, rusted and nearly lost in the overtness of it's otherwise perverse obsessions.
There is not a whole lot of depth to the characters. In some parts the dialog was excessively cheesy. Overall the characters seemed convincing, but utterly lost and dim in the light of changed perspective or growth (partly due to a very abrupt ending). Awkward is a very nice way to describe a lot of the interactions here--it is that at best. Hugely uncomfortable (mother-in-law sitting right next to me) with age- inappropriate interactions happening left and right. I did, however, find excellent ironic humor including Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) in a role as a ghost and ex-lover of a relationally confused character. There were other dark ironies that did make me kind of chuckle, but mixed between moments of shock and queasiness.
I'd argue that the dilemma of forgiveness developed in this movie could be much more easily related in an Aesop's fable, or from somewhere in the Torah, but if you prefer to wade through sexually perverse, disturbingly inappropriate movies to get your 'moral of the story' then this movie may be for you, otherwise I'm not sure what you'd get from it.