The Killing of a Sacred Deer: TIFF Review


I'll give this to Yorgos Lanthimos, he has made a truly unforgettable film in The Killing of Sacred Deer. It's shot beautifully, boasts a tremendous score but is ultimately an empty and overly sadistic exercise in starting out with a really cool concept and then running out of steam way too quickly. It's a solid concept, mirroring that of a profoundly dark Greek tragedy, but the reach far exceeds the grasp and epically misses. The film spells out what's on its mind and doesn't care to further evaluate making the whole experience mind-numbingly frustrating to watch. I like Lanthimos quite a bit but this film is all sorts of problematic, especially when it stoops to the insane level of stupidity presented in its finale. 2 hours has really never felt this long.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It Comes At Night: Review

Image
Director Trey Edward Shults’ debut film  Krisha  was one of the most criminally underseen gems from last year and the sheer level of talent he displayed in that film was powerful enough for me to be looking forward to any and all of his future projects. Now he’s re-teaming with everyone’s favorite indie distributor A24 for his follow-up project  It Comes at Night , and if this film proves anything, it’s that Shults isn’t fucking around and he’s here to stay because he has made one of the most singularly spellbinding pieces of horror cinema I’ve seen this decade. It Comes at Night  isn’t necessarily a horror film per say, but rather a hellishly intense psychological thriller/family thriller. It’s a very slow burn but that only adds to its effect. This is a film that slowly creeped its way into my psyche and has now left it scarred and shaken for eternity. This is not a film that will scare you quite like something like  The Conjuring  or  The ...
Read more

A Ghost Story: Review

Image
I had strong feeling that my experience watching this movie would fuck me up but I had no idea it would fuck me up THIS MUCH. David Lowery's  A Ghost Story  has been one of my most anticipated films of 2017 ever since I first heard about. I really love the way that Lowery builds his films. The two very different  Ain't Them Bodies Saints  and  Pete's Dragon  have a very distinct sense of warmth and empathy at the center. Not to mention, they both look and sound utterly stunning. If anything,  A Ghost Story  has now solidified Lowery's place as one of the most exciting fresh talents working in the business right now. Simply put,  A Ghost Story  is unlike any film I've ever seen and it made me feel a way that I'm honestly not quite sure a film has ever made me feel. Shot in a rounded 1.33:1 aspect ratio, every frame of this film feels very soft and nostalgic; it draws you in, comforts you, and makes you feel a sense of connection to...
Read more

The Dark Tower: Review

Image
The Dark Tower  is bland, boring, and far too quick to try to build a franchise yet somehow also lacking in any ambition towards lore or world-building. Arcel and co. clearly, show no sense of understanding in the original source material. In a meager 95 minutes, this film manages to accomplish absolutely nothing of merit. Elba and McConaughey are fine but they’re entirely unable to bring any sense of style, fun, richness, or urgency to a movie that really could’ve benefitted from that. Weirdly enough, I do not think  The Dark Tower  is really a catastrophe of a film or even offensive in any way, it's just a stale brand of studio-stapled nothingness. Sony took a groundbreaking and thrillingly original novel franchise and turned it into...well…..a Sony product. Aside from a metric ass-ton of references to King’s other works, there's not much of semblance towards his unique vision. Mediocre in all of the ways a film possibly could be. There isn't a single moment in this f...
Read more