Wij

Having no knowledge of this film and seemingly stumbling upon it, "Wij" was quite different in comparison's to the typical Hollywood films we see today.

The story is quite depressing and the characters for the most part are unlikeable (mainly the lead male along with the two lead females). What made very little sense is how there were 8 of them yet none of them had any sense to stop doing what they were doing. Of course something tragic was bound to occur.

The storytelling dealing with four of the main eight characters retelling their version of what occurred was quite well done. These four stories seemingly range from tamest to most disturbing in order- Part 1 relatively tame, while Part 4 is the most disturbing and vile.

This isn't a film for the faint hearted. The director definitely goes out all, pushing boundaries, such as more excessive nudity than needed (including brief unsimulated sex scenes). The acting was surprisingly convincing and good.

Without revealing anything, the end revelation or twist told by one of the characters in the finale was quite disappointing (Part 4). We watched the film up to that point only to find out, that was what really occurred. As some of the other top reviews has stated, this end payoff isn't exactly satisfactory.

Very satisfying movie to watch. A reminder of just how wide this world is we live in, aside from how deep it is. A strange story of eight teenagers getting up to no good in a foreign version of rebelling. The story is told and retold by different members of the 8. With each retelling the absurd becomes believable, and this even though each version is different. These kids use sex to hurt, but they don't realize it at first. A marvelous story and direction.

I didn't really get the point of "Wij". Was it just to pruriently show the sex lives of its teenage protagonists? Perhaps. But the movie makes no attempt at eroticism, and the full frontal nudity takes us by surprise because there's no build up to it. It appears to be trying to show us how everyday this behaviour is for its characters, and at that I guess it makes its point. But what is the wider point?

Eight teenagers - four boys and four girls - engage in increasingly depraved sexual behaviour during a hot summer in Belgium. The girls, particularly, seem to have no regard to their rights to their own bodies, flashing their bushes at oncoming cars (and causing a pile-up in the process) and playing games in which foreign items are inserted you-know-where. At one stage, somebody pretends to listen to earbuds that have their cord inserted into someone else's vagina.

The movie also features a death-by-insertion that may have to be seen to be believed.

So, that's the movie. The characters remain totally undifferentiated throughout. They never emerge with personalities or motivations. You don't even know who you're looking at half the time.

This material is the kind of thing US director Larry Clarke makes, and comparing it to his material reveals its limitations ever more. Clarke would have chosen a gritty photographic approach to the material, and may also have based the movie off a true story, to give it much needed weight.

As is, "Wij" is pretty forgettable.

Kids, A Better Tomorrow, Alpha Dog...we've seen it before...a group of teenagers who are living lives outside of their parents' knowledge, discovering themselves, indulging in sexual behavior and criminal activity. This Belgian/Dutch spin on it wasn't bad.

The cast was very talented-although I didn't find any character likeable-but, they did their job. Still these teens are insensitive jerks, with barely no remorse for their actions, and how the "big dilemma" was handled at the end didn't make me like them any more. The ending is...interesting(in its open-ended glory). I'm assuming the controversial novel this film is based on is spectacular though.

(I will say without giving anything away: one of the main characters may have had childhood trauma that caused some of his actions in the end-but I'll say no more.)

Basically this movie is fine; if it's on Netflix check it out, but definitely don't break your neck looking for it. You've probably seen stuff like this before-this is just the Dutch version.

This is a terrible film, depending mostly on shock value. I thought this would be a nice movie watch while drinking, but I was surely disappointed