Ex Drummer

Based on a story by infamous Belgian novelist Herman Brusselmans, Ex Drummer is a dismal, nihilistic trip into the world of three handicapped gentlemen who want to start a rock band.

The local battle of the bands is coming up and Koen, Jan & Ivan want to participate, the only problem is they don't have a drummer. They soon decide to ask local author Dries to join their band, thinking his celebrity status may give them a better chance at winning. Seeing as all the members have their own particular handicaps, they ask Dries what his is - it seems he can't play the drums.

The band is a motley crew indeed; vocalist / guitarist Koen is a horny, skinhead rapist with a horrible lisp, bassist Jan is gay with a paralysed right arm and an obsessive mother complex, and rhythm guitarist Ivan is a deaf junkie who treats his wife and child like sh!t. Dries accepts the invitation to join their band purely for his own amusement and in the hope that he'll get a story idea from it. They name their band The Feminists.

Ex Drummer overflows with glorious politically incorrect offensiveness: rape, pedophilia, rampant misogyny, racism, homophobia, infant death, incest… there's really something for everyone. Although with the misanthropic attitude and overall bleak atmosphere coexists a sense of the surreal and an undertone of pitch black comedy. For instance the scene where Big Dick, a member of a rival band with a horse-sized appendage, forces his wife to show her wrecked vagina to Dries, the two men literally walk around in her womb as Big Dick points out the tunnel he's carved out with his mammoth member. The film doesn't shy away from graphic violence either, particularly in the last quarter - there's some rather gruesome death scenes and an extremely bloody rape / castration.

Ex Drummer is quite technically accomplished and visually stunning at times too, bizarre sequences such as the one mentioned above don't really seem out of the ordinary when Koen the skinhead rapist lives upside down in his blood-splattered house, and some scenes are shot completely backwards. The camera-work and editing are utterly frenzied - especially during the final concert - with certain sequences being superimposed one on top of the another. The fantastic soundtrack deserves a mention here too, the film opens with the awesome Lighting Bolt track 2 Morro Morro Land and continues on with songs that complement the often harsh imagery on display. The bands in the film are actually quite decent also, they all have a similar lo-fi gutter-punk sound, and The Feminists do a wicked cover of DEVO's Mongoloid.

A highly impressive feature film debut from Koen Mortier and a must see for fans of transgressive cinema.

"Ex Drummer" starts out great. The setting and plot are so wacky it's a delight. The characters alternately amuse and shock you with their actions. The movie has been described as a "Trainspotting" for the new millennium and while the comparison isn't totally fitting, "Ex Drummer" shares the run down cast of freaks with the Ewan McGregor vehicle.

The first half is totally brilliant, original, refreshing and with a great soundtrack as the icing on the cake. In the second half, however, the movie loses some of its wit. It's there that you realize that "Ex Drummer" isn't really going anywhere, although it all started so promising. Characters just hit, abuse and swear at each other for no apparent reason and it all becomes a bit tiring.

The movie's ending is rather anti-climatic. The credits role and you're left puzzled, feeling that this could have made a much bigger impact on you, if the story had gone somewhere else. Maybe that's not the movie's fault but the fault of the novel, which it is based upon.

In the end "Ex Drummer" is a refreshing example of non-American film-making. It will leave you with your mouth open more than just a few times. Unfortunately, the beginning promises more than the rest of the movie can keep. Still, "Ex Drummer" is a must-see. One of the most unusual movies of the past ten years.

I have rated 755 films on IMDb; I've watched many more, I suspect. Finally, a film has caused me to write a review out of pure respect to the creators.

If you like:

surreal cinema, extreme violence, dark humour, transitions from guilty laughs to gut-wrenching, sickening imagery, thought-provoking intelligent drama which superficially looks and sounds unintelligent

then you may well feel the same about this film as I do.

Quentin Tarantino is one of my all-time idols. If he had made this film the world would have raved about it.

For the portion of Herman Brusselmans's oeuvre I've read, the movie gave me quite the same feelings as his books. Is that a good thing? It is if you like the man's early work. It shares the very cynical humorous comments the protagonist dispenses in reaction to the other character's actions, as well as his patronizing lecturing towards the young attractive females.

None of the characters are even remotely likable. They're antisocial, immoral sometimes even homicidal ugly bastards and bitches. A normal conversation between them is simply impossible, insults and curses galore. At times it can get a bit cartoonesque.

Is it funny? Yes. Well, funny crude. Everything is quite over the top: the nudity, the violence and especially the music, which saves the film for a great deal. The soundtrack is an amalgam of Belgian and international noise rock, with some softer tracks to ease the pace.

I found it 90 minutes well spent, even if it dragged on a bit too long in the end.

While this may be uncomforting for some, this is something which draws you to a cinema (or not, for some) It might be offensive, it might be raw, but the plain stupidity depicted in this movie is not far from reality, and that is what make this movie so haunting in the first place. If you like a story about little people not making it in the big world, this movie is for you. If you like movies where things all work out in the end, stay away, not for you.

Although I must admit I like the author from the novel on which this film is based upon, I was quite shocked to see a film like this, it's quite serious in some parts, quite ridiculous in others, but never falls apart, and that is very, very smart. Thank you Belgium for giving us a decent movie from Europe this year.