This is one of the worst films I know of. It came up on TV last night and me and my girlfriend sat through in dumbfounded amazement. We actually put off the Kusturica we were going to see, so trasfixed and entertained were we. The count of inept filmmaking:
Null and void stuff, purporting some important insight into the human condition. Watch, instead, Dead Man's Shoes with Paddy Considine if you're in the mood for this kind of thing; it's not great but at least it's by the hand of an actual filmmaker.
- drab, ugly aesthetic in the name of 'stark realism', yet applied to
- the most cartoonish fictional universe since the Death Wish sequels. Laughable cutouts of 'street punks' make up the disposable fodder of utter, contemptuous evil. They strike poses of meanness, and exclusively populate seedy areas lit like a set-piece from a glossy horror movie.
- crushingly cheap symbolism. The setting for the final, furious vengeance is across 'Stygian street'. Crosses abound, in all the wrong places. A protagonist who, as usual in these revenge films, becomes what he despised - we see him drive the muscle car, the new haircut that makes him look like one of them. In the penultimate scene, his opponent actually tells him 'you're one of us'! How condescending to any audience that paid even the smallest attention.
- now and then, a snappy montage or song in the soundtrack will obviously punctuate the emotional momentum. Further retreat from the flimsy facsimile of 'realism' into the shallowness of music video.
Null and void stuff, purporting some important insight into the human condition. Watch, instead, Dead Man's Shoes with Paddy Considine if you're in the mood for this kind of thing; it's not great but at least it's by the hand of an actual filmmaker.