Big Bad Wolves

It sounds like a comedy, and certainly, the way the movie plays undermines the seriousness of the subject, (no spoilers here!) but that is okay, because not always do things have to be so gritty, dark and brutal.

In a way, "Big Bad Wolves" is the antithesis of "Prisoners" (2013), and this is not a bad thing, because "Big Bad Wolves" does not toy with our emotions, anger or despair, but with our curiosity, with our doubts, all the way to the final scene that fades into the elegance of irony and what we already knew.

The acting and the atmosphere creates what I crave most in a film, and this is: unpredictability; who really did it?, why?, where? These questions became irrelevant, because we are just in it for the ride that provides a good movie like this.

So Quentin Tarantino had this one on his top ten flicks of 2013. I don't know why I thought this was going to be a horror movie, maybe it was because of the tittle, but it does have some frighting elements in it.

Three men from three different walks of life, all of which are bad fathers. The movie centers around one bad father whose child is raped and murdered supposedly by one of the other bad fathers, and when the cops, lead by another bad father, failed to bring this man to justice even by any means necessary, he takes matters into his own hands.

It was a well crafted psychological thriller about what a father would do to seek vengeance for the crimes committed against their children based upon his own guilt of not being there for them. The movie was very low key and had the viewer use their imagination for a lot of what could have been the horror parts.

What surprised me most was how this slow film was such a roller coaster ride as they keep the viewers trying to figure out if the protagonist was doing the right thing to the right man to get vengeance.

Tarantino was right about this one.

Though Quentin Tarantino might have been exaggerating the movie a bit by calling it the best movie of 2013, it would probably land somewhere in the top 15. The movie has both violence & gore, but what really hits home is the psychological terror and the mystery of the identity of the killer. The slow details of the murder cases really clash with the motives of those involved and really makes you take a side with who you think is right and wrong. Though the movie doesn't reinvent the serial killer genre, but it does stand tall with its amazing cinematography and black humor. One of the better torture porns of recent memory (though not terribly graphic). Its on Netflix and certainly worth a watch!

Full Review at: http://www.simplefilmreviews.com/2014/05/big-bad-wolves-2013.html

Right off the bat I'll just have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I was hooked when I saw the trailer, and then finding out Tarantino claimed it to be the "Best Movie of the Year" pretty much meant that I needed to watch it immediately. It was brilliant. However, the trailer is sort of misleading. The trailer sets you up for what seems like a nice, long torture fest. Yes, that is a large part of the movie, but there is so much more going on. And as far as gore goes it's reasonably mellow. Much of the focus is on the suspense. So much so, that at one point I had to pause the movie and was like "I need a beer." The cinematography is great, the audio/soundtrack is SUPERB! It's one of the very few movies where I found myself saying "I have no idea what's going to happen," and I found myself saying this the entire time I was watching the movie.

As I was researching this movie a bit I came across a review on rogerebert.com that I would like to share (and destroy):

"On the face of it, Quentin Tarantino declaring the second-rate Israeli torture thriller "Big Bad Wolves" the best film of 2013 is patently ridiculous, especially given how seriously inferior it is to Tarantino's own work in the grisly exploitation field." - Godfrey Cheshire (rogerebert.com contributor)

First of all, claiming this movie is "second-rate" totally ruins one's credibility as a critic. It is far and away not a second-rate movie. But what gets me even more worked up is not the fact that Mr. Cheshire claims this movie is inferior to Tarantino's work, but for his categorization of this movie into the grisly exploitation field. I love Tarantino and his movies and I wouldn't dare compare Big Bad Wolves to any of them, as Big Bad Wolves is largely different. IT IS NOT A GRISLY EXPLOITATION FILM. Maybe the critic only saw the trailer — I wouldn't put it past him — But this film, while it does include some torture, is much more in depth than any "grisly exploitation film" I've seen.

With all that said, I would just like to reiterate that I loved this movie, and would recommend it as a must-see to anybody who appreciates good filmmaking (and doesn't mind reading subtitles).

BBW deserves a 7 out of 10 and I would have rated it higher if the screen writer would have made a somewhat greater effort to avoid what I considered a disappointing ending to the film that just came out flat. There is some very good acting between the three main characters as well as by the supporting cast. Continual suspense is maintained and the film is sprinkled throughout with a bit of dark humour to allow the audience not to take the film too seriously.

The film does not rely on extensive blood and gore neither by the serial killer Dror, or by his own captors and tormentors, Gidi and Micki. I was quite impressed with how the suspense was maintained all the way through the film as well as a few slick twists and turns such as when Gidi's father arrives at the cottage and discovers what his son Gidi has been up to.

The trick I believe to delivering a great film is to have the audience feeling good about how the film ends such that we would like to see a sequel, or leaving us with the desire to view the film a second time. In this case, I found the films closing scenes were a big let down mainly because the rest of the film was so suspenseful and entertaining. Upon leaving the film what a screen writer really does not want to hear is the audience saying "well that was a dumb ending wasn't it?"

This is a high rising film which came up flat at the end. I rated the film a 7 out of 10.