Srpski Film aka 'A Serbian Film' is been the talk of late in film festivals. It's one of those movies that becomes famous, or infamous depending on how you look at it, for its controversial and shocking imagery. Don't believe a word when you ear people and the filmmakers themselves defending the social or political relevance of the film regarding Serbian current state of affairs or that of its citizens. Perhaps that was the purpose of the film in its staging phases, but it was definitely abandoned in production or post-production in favor of a more commercial and easy to handle torture porn territory. That's why you have basically two halves in the film. The first part takes it time to get you to know the main characters, especially that of Milos (Srdjan Todorovic) and his wife and son, in order to cash in emotionally, later on in the second half of the film when things get crazy. However, the film fails to make that emotional connection, simply because the film becomes too bizarre and fake in the second half, throwing any character and social message credibility out the window.
The story is simple. Milos is a retired famous porn star, now married with a beautiful wife and son, who is contacted by an acquantice from his old porn days, with a extremely lucrative offer to return to work in the medium. Due to economic pressures, and against his instincts and better judgement, he agrees. What follows is a steady climb up in increasingly uncomfortable porn shoots, that goes way past snuff material.
The acting is pretty good all around. I liked Srdjan Todorovic, as he builds up a convincing Milos as a sympathetic character despite his past, as well as the actress playing his wife. The domestic familly scenes are pretty good for this kind of film. Cinematography is very good, and the music soundtrack already made its way to my collection. And then there are of course the violence, which has become the main appeal of the movie. I'm not going to lie to you, there were a couple of moments (for me at least, probably more for others depending on your mileage), that are now forever burned in my mind. Not because it was terribly original, or just plain terrible, but because it was shot very effectively. Those scenes were predictable, but it didn't matter. The way it was shot and the crescendo of it made it work.
If you like controversial films, than this is a must see. It's f**king explicit in its violence. It's got pedophile rape, snuff, newborn porn, and whatever sick and demented act humans can conjure with their minds. And that is fine on its own. My problem is the pretentiousness the filmmakers tried to wrap all this around. This is not a philosofical deep film, or political and socially relevant despite their claims. If that was truly their objective, filming a scene where a man kills another by penile penetration through the other's eye socket, is hardly the way to go to achieve that goal. Political or social concerns were not in the filmmakers mind when they did this. Don't be fooled. You take away the shocking imagery and extreme violence, and you're left with a mostly empty film.
I though this was a different Cyrus film, and when the words Mind of a Serial Killer appeared on screen, I immediately realized my mistake. But it had Lance Henriksen name in the opening credits, so I gave it shot anyway. How bad could it be? How naive of me.
It's based on a true story. Whatever. I couldn't care less. Boring story about a serial killer who hunts down people and turn them into hamburgers called Roadkill, which become famous for being the tastiest burgers around. Boring script. Awful cinematography. Have I mentioned this was boring? Even the trailer is boring.
At this point I would like to launch a call for help to director James Cameron on behalf of poor Lance Henriksen. James, you worked with Lance in a couple of movies early in your career. Can't you give him a hand in his darkest hour? The guy has hit bottom. I don't think he'll say no to playing a role behind blue cgi if need be. Just reach out for him. Please.
RATING: ☺After watching Cyrus, I thought Bulletface couldn't possibly be any worse. After all, the premise looked cool. Something about spinal fluid being trafficked as the ultimate drug. Apparently my naivety is rampant these days.
Thirty minutes into the film and I still don't have a clue what the story is about if not for prior knowledge obtained from IMDb. And I stop caring anyway. I've watched porn with much better quality than this in my time. Everything is amateurish. The acting (possible exception for Morgan Weisser), script, directing, cinematography. Hell, it's worse than amateurish. We're talking about a complete lack of talent from everyone involved in this mess. Halfway I hit the fast forward button, pausing only when some tits and ass appeared on screen, or when some guns were drawn. I regretted it every single time.
Apparently this film took one hundred thousand dollars to make. All I can say to whoever coughed up the money to do this is "buddy, you got ripped off".
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