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Old 07-17-2017, 08:54 AM   #227
teh b0lly!!1
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after hearing so much raving about it, i approached this film expecting some real cinematic candy. i think i might have processed it very differently if it just happened to come on TV and i only vaguely knew it was about a cannibalistic college chick - but i didn't, so it left me feeling pretty divided.

to start things off - i will admit that i don't really agree with all the praising and accolades all singing in unison. i think it would have been better if i was expecting something trashy - although i do wish to emphasize i'm not saying this is a trashy film at all.

to start from the upside, i think this film brilliantly sets out to fuse together a slew of very disparate and narratively distant genres. a cannibalistic vampire oddball outsider girl, goes into a strict schooling system with initiation rituals echoing the dehumanization of Full Metal Jacket, almost, and then develops her own sexuality and learns to come to terms with herself. like, it's horror, drama, coming of age, cannibalism/vampirism, love, family, sisterhood, gay overtones. self control. even anorexia. that's creative originality that i really respect. it's all tossed into this massive melting pot and at the very least, this is a very original film unlike other that i'd ever come across, and for that it's admirable, especially so for a debut effort.

it is also quite arresting visually and beautifully shot, and the cinematography was obviously much labored over. but, interestingly (or not, if you consider me a boring old fuck, in which case i don't blame ya) - those two upsides also leak into what i found disappointing about the film, as well. and by that i mean, that although it deals with a particularly diverse array of genres, plot arcs, and ideas, it somehow feels very dense, and yet quite lean at the same time.

it seemingly deals with such a large and great variety of ideas and themes, but in the end it ends up merely 'commenting' on most of them, and never really fully cease almost any of them. very few of all these really interesting angles and ideas were really fleshed out like i wished they had. not Justine's beautiful relationship with Adriane; not her maturing process and coming to grips with herself and her sexuality/frightening impulses; not her getting through this unbelievably dehumanizing initiation process. not her dealing with her seemingly complex/congested family situation.

in this regard, it feels somewhat like an exploitation film. it mostly focuses on shock factor moments, of which it has plenty, and arguably too many. the puking of a long string of hair, the bikini wax scene, the chicken/finger eating scene, etc etc.

another somewhat 'exploitative' dimension in the film that i thought was a bit lackluster, was how some sequences were tailored into it, seemingly mostly to indulge the director, rather than wholly and truly serve the story and the film. like, that shot of the new students crawling to the party like insects, or even that nice shot that referenced "A Clockwork Orange" -

it's not like they're super bad, distracting and unnecessary bigtime money shots or anything... but they are slightly offset to the rhythm of the film, i thought. some moments like that felt slightly displaced to me. like the story was being interrupted by occasional heavy handed set pieces, that although beautiful in their own right - don't allow for one continuous stream of unbroken storytelling.

the one aspect in the film i found most beautiful, was Justine's relationship with her sister, and that story delivered some of the most beautiful moments for me. learning to piss standing up on a deserted rooftop; having this sadomasochistic love-hate relationship with each other, that's ultimately rooted in real, deep love.

that one sequence where they fight like savage animals in the school yard, and sink their teeth into each others' arms, then gaze into each others' eyes, before walking away from the scene with their arms around each other, fending off people who came for 'help' (i.e separate them)-

that's quality acting. quality storytelling. that's filmmaking that makes you empathize with something so otherworldly, so depraved, so backwards of what is 'real'. and at that moment it just becomes a good story that moves you, regardless of the fucked up circumstances within which it was bred. that's the kind of beautiful subtlety i wish there was more of in the picture, and unfortunately i thought it missed a fair share of other opportunities for that.

one last thing that i found really cool and interesting about this film, is the staggering difference between what it is about on the surface, and what the symbolism stands for. of course, the metaphoric meaning runs parallel to it all along, hand in hand. like a transparent sticker on a new screen, that finally reveals itself fully and comes off in the very last scene of the film - with Justine's father revealing his mutilated, scarred chest, and telling his daughter she will find a way to get through it, just like himself and her mother did.

and only then it sort of hit me fully that even though it's a fucked up movie about cannibalism and violence and depravity, what it's really about is just learning to deal with life, and what you're given - be it your (fucked up) family, the world you live in, your sexuality, your natural inclination and demeanor, etc.

so all this basically boils down to a lot of praise i just typed up on a film that i basically really loved the idea of, but wish it was fleshed out more profoundly and in a more layered fashion. because as it stands, it is frankly, more than anything else, a stylish exploitation film with a distant layer of symbolism, that although it works quite nicely - is way underutilized within the context of the actual film imho.

it's been a while since i typed up one of those. i hope i didn't lose it. thank you for reading. i would also like to point out that i very seriously considered multiple times during the course of the film to stop watching it, because it had a LOT of very, very unnecessary scenes that depicted animal abuse that was absolutely unjustified, and that was shitty and made me feel shitty for watching this as entertainment.

ta!

Last edited by teh b0lly!!1 : 07-17-2017 at 12:46 PM.

 
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