Undergods

The oddest thing about this film to me was how heavily it borrowed from Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into The Future. A whole section of it was almost a straight lift from Bruegel and Mahler cruising the ruins in search of lucrative deposits to be cashed in at Nightingales Body Bank. This couldn't have been an accident, as the end theme music was almost identical. Elsewhere it was a hotchpotch of borrowed themes, probably starting at Eraserhead and working its way through any number of long-forgotten dark films and TV episodes.

Of the cast, only Johann Myers was immediately recognisable to me, from his underplayed yet still chilling role as David Harewood's enforcer in the truly terrifying Criminal Justice. One or two others looked vaguely familiar, probably having bit-parts in The Bill in the 1980s. This didn't matter, as no stars were needed or even wanted in this film, for which the main requirement was to invest in the project with the slightly bewildered detachment required to pull it off. The party scene was strangely reminiscent of the currently popular style of many TV comedies, which instead of good old-fashioned jokes, rely on provoking feelings of extreme embarrassment and discomfort.

The film itself seems to have come to life in a strange and unusual way, being an Estonian project but using a mixture of British and European actors with National Lottery Funding. I thought the original Max Headroom film was a ground breaking classic, but I can't make my mind up whether it being flattered in this way should be viewed in a positive or negative way. I can't even make my mind up whether being a homage to one of my favourite films made me mark it up or down.

A series of vignettes, connected in weird and unsuspected ways, painting the picture of a dystopia that reminds us of daily life more often than is comfortable. Powerful imagery and intriguing stories, though it perhaps lacks purpose and direction at times. Worth watching if you enjoy movies like About Endlessness but prefer a bit more grit.

First and foremost, acting is good and directing is excellent. So it has a solid foundation. The story is an anthology that loosely threads together tales of suffering manifesting within different environments. I'm still unsure if I enjoyed it. Perhaps some films are not meant to be merely enjoyed but to arouse contemplation. Either way, I'm interested to see what Chino Moya makes in the future, provided there is one.

The movie is about how dysfunctional families ruin eachother and ultimately end up ruining the entire society by proxy.

Visually this movie is aesthetically interesting

the storyline is ultimately a satire on how society really is at times

a mosaic of various different occurences in different lives that ultimately is self destructive in whole

it shows how a persons life can be destroyed from having people in families that ultimately dont really care for eachother

this movie can be heart breakingly tragic to those that actually lived similar occurences in their personal lives and might rub the wrong way psychologically

in my experience most families have good bonds and support eachother in real life

so the ultimate premise of this story is that families ruin everything and from thenforth ruins an entire society because these families are what constructs as little pieces of a company, a neighborhood and ultimately an entire city. What i took from my viewing and perhaps someone else viewing this film might be different.

Thought provoking and visually striking

but overall a grim look at humanity as an inevitable downward spiral

would be 10/10 except it kind of leaves you with a disgusting after taste that somehow makes you resent humanity for its inherent flaws.

I once read a John le Carré novel in which, early in the action, a spy, who was gut-shot and bleeding out on someone's carpet, was first and foremost profoundly apologetic about the mess, more than he was concerned with his own demise. Carré painted this as a quintessentially English approach to being in a state of profound distress. I must say: a fair enough stereotype, at least in those awkward cases where the carpet might be antique, and even for the aspirational masses too.

During the first ten minutes of this movie, I wasn't sure if I was watching something good. If you watch you'll see why--although the acting was really great then and throughout. Things were just so uncomfortable, inhibited, and so obviously sure to turn out badly in a predictable way. However, suddenly the movie took various hard, unexpected, and pleasantly intriguing turns. The slow start became, for me, canvas and backdrop to some actual stories. What ensued was actually pretty interesting and unpredictable.

Ultimately, despite the uncomfortably dystopian mess it drops on your proverbial carpet, this film owes you no apologies beyond the naked grotesqueness of it's own dark, forlorn, and pathological message. To me it's quite the interesting, last-minute suicide note of the languishing English soul.

My final verdict: well acted, interestingly plotted, very stark and dystopian, and it even offers a bit of futurist s/f backed up by completely convincing special effects. Absolutely worthy of a watch.