Playground

Well, were do I even begin...

For starters, yes, the film becomes quite disturbing in the end, but the build up before the disturbing part is very slow and kinda goes nowhere. I guess the point of 3/4 of the film was to introduce us the kids, to show that they are basically usual children, doing children's stuff while being cruel at times. That's the whole premise of the 'Playground' as I see it - sometimes (seemingly) perfectly normal kids can do awful things. And they do, sadly.

The very slow build up is actually fine with me. I haven't seen a lot of Polish films, let alone the modern ones, so it was interesting to see how fellow Eastern Europeans live. The cinematography is just competent, but that's good enough and acting is surprisingly good, especially for such young kids. Basically there's 3 main characters: Gabrysia - a girl from a wealthy family, an exemplary student, yet a bit social awkward, Szymek - a boy from a somewhat poorer family, popular in school and Czarek - a boy from a lower-class family. We follow them throughout the day, witnessing them doing daily routine and having anger issues, and then the climax happens. Or what seems to be a climax at first. Then the film pulls out a twist and hits you on your head with the real one. Hope it doesn't count as a spoiler.

I like how the final scene was shot: you witness the events through surveillance cameras or from a distance. You already suspect what's about to happen, you don't want it to happen, yet feel all the more helpless, observing it from afar. The final minutes will most likely make you shudder, and it's really a testament how you don't have to go full gore to invoke strong repulsive emotions.

At the end, it would have made for a great short film: in this current form it might be a tad too sluggish. The plot twist feels kinda cheap, and the finale sort of rolls out of nowhere, but maybe it was the whole point. The violence for no reason feels all the more terrifying, especially done by children. 'Plac Zabaw' is not perfect, but worth your time if you're interested in Eastern European cinema or you from the 'disturbing movies' crowd, even though it's not the most disturbing flick by far.

Just watched Plac Zabaw (Playground), and I'm still reeling from an ending that I didn't see coming. I went into this movie blind, but expected something dark, mainly from the ad art etc. But the final act of this movie is just heavy, brutal and stunning. But it's handled so delicately, so matter of factly, that even that becomes disturbing.

Plac Zabaw is a horror film in the true sense.

I've just finished watching "Playground", so forgive me if I'm more than a little shaken. For the purpose of background, I am a huge horror fan. It's my preferred genre, and one that I spend more time than is probably healthy watching.

Playground is not what I'd call a horror film. In fact, it's not even a film that I can, in good conscience, recommend to anyone.

It is a horror film in the sense that what transpires is horrific, but it's not ghosts and goblins or inexplicably immortal slashers. What transpires is horrific because it is real. No, this isn't a snuff film, though it is based on a very real case that other reviewers have touched on.

I am no lightweight. I've seen just about anything you can imagine in the realm of fictional violence. I've always stopped short of anything depicting cruelty towards real people.

Heed my warning when I say that this movie is not one you should enter into blindly. Do some research first, for God's sake, and make sure you're braced for what is to come.

I gave this a "10" because it truly horrified me. I'm so unnerved that I'm trembling as I write this. It's a "10" because this is the world we've created, a world where this kind of horror is all-too commonplace. A world devoid of empathy. I gave this a "10" because maybe some people need to be made to watch this. Maybe some people need to bear witness to what they've made.

... but is it good? Well it's very well made. And you can argue that the acting is really good. It almost feels too real. As in documentary real and painful in a way that you are inside the whole thing, watching some despicable characters and some very awful things happening too. Of course kids will be kids as they say, but how much can they get away with? And how much or how far do they go? It's not that the movie has answers to all the questions.

We have a couple of kids who have their own worries and their own lifes. We get to see how they are at home and how they act when they are at school (and with friends). So while I cannot stress out enough, that this movie might feel slow and dragging to some, not to mention a bit dark (to put it mildly), it is also very well made. So if you are into arthouse and real life cinema ... this is it.

I. "There's no hope to be had in humanity, not even in children. I haven't been this torn apart, this disturbed, this uncomfortable since 'Irreversible' but at least I felt the soul and heartbreak behind that film, not the cold emptiness I feel now. A great film but I sincerely don't think I can rate it."

The above blurb is of my initial reaction to the latest transgressive Polish film "Plac Zabaw" (or "Playground" in English-speaking countries), which I wrote on Letterboxd upon exiting the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles. I'm tempted to leave it as such but after sitting on it for a month I think it's worth a try to "recommend" or, at least, talk about this film in the hopes that someone may see it (if you can, since it seems finding a copy of this film is near impossible at the moment).

II. Playground can be called many things: "Irreversible" meets "Kids", social commentary, even "awful garbage", which was said by the two other people with me in the theater as they walked out. One of them was in tears. A testament to the film's power I think lies in the fact that it is able to draw such a reaction. Mind you, this is no "I Spit on Your Grave" trying to make money out of its shock appeal. At least, I don't think it is. Truth be told, a month has passed and I'm still on the fence over whether this film is art or exploitation. It is filled with both subtle and gratuitous violence, mostly unmotivated, wholly unexplained. There is something to be said about the three children it follows and their distinct class divisions. There is something to be said about the cruelty of childhood. There is something to be said about Polish youth today (recalling the right-wing youth protests in Poland last year). There is something to be said about poverty, media, humanity... but what does it all mean? These, I think, are crucial topics - not whether the film is violent, despicable, exploitative or this and that - whose conclusions viewers should reach themselves.

III. To briefly touch on the technical side, the film is certainly beautifully shot and uniquely structured and edited, making for a fine piece of European arthouse cinema. It is also riddled with symbolism and moments of quiet surrealism, in particular a fly which, not without purpose, found its way to the film's cover poster (I wonder what that could mean?).

IV. One final note, I remember reading a little review of "Playground" that said: "You don't have to acquiesce to this kind of filmmaking. 'Oh but you're angry! It succeeded!' Cool, so rush hour traffic is now cinema. Good to know." My response to this is (1) it's impossible to equate the shock and anger this movie generates to the trivial and solvable frustration of rush hour traffic and (2) they are absolutely, no one needs to acquiesce to this kind of filmmaking, the right is yours, but those who choose to do so may indeed find a truly rewarding experience.