Raw - Una cruda verità

Careful, the movie you see in the trailer is not the one you get! It isn't necessarily a bad thing. It was just marketed the wrong way. You expect a dark and highly stylized indie Nicolas Winding Refn-kind of movie. It is however a coming of age story which happens to include a very unusual element (cannibalism). You won't regret watching it if you know what you're getting yourself into.

This film was painfully disturbing. I would look at the lights in the room or the people around me, just so I wouldn't have to look at the screen during some parts. It is clear from the start that the objective of the director is to make the audience uncomfortable, and I applaud his effectiveness in doing so. I was most impressed by the ability of Raw to leave me genuinely cringing at nearly every single scene. It didn't even have to be gore filled or disgusting in a traditional sense. The whole film oozes an uneasiness that the seeps into the audience. As much as I admire the clear objective of the filmmakers and how well they achieved it, it is not the movie for me. Be sure to watch it until the end, however, because everything ties together in a very intuitive and satisfying fashion.

I heard the hype. How this film was "so horrific" that people left midway through the film after being so repulsed, they were physically ill. I went in with the - negative - expectation that this was going to be a gore fest. SPOILER: it's not. What we have here is a particularly grisly, but effective coming of age story, a genre the French have a penchant for. For a film about cannibalism, it's surprisingly subtle and is generally a slow burn that builds tension well. I found the performances uniformly strong, especially from Garance Millier. Her transformation from shy and socially awkward to animalistic and unhinged is a joy to watch. The atmosphere is well developed, especially those incredibly effective party scenes that perfectly capture what it's like at a wild college party. And I have to say, for such a twisted film, it's surprisingly sexy. Again, thank the French.

No, it's not for the faint of heart and yes, some of the imagery is quite brutal. It could've have fleshed out - heh - some of the relationships between certain characters better, but overall, I'd recommend this to people with open minds and strong stomachs.

This is a really interesting movie. We are introduced to a crazy college with bizarre students. I was impressed by the courage of this new director that show us disturbing sexual scenes without lose the focus of the message.

For me it's a valuable cinematic experience.

We have all seen the umpteen coming-of-age or sexual awakening story, but when is the last time you saw a becoming-a-cannibal story? This is one incredibly muscular piece of filmmaking, marrying visual poetry with slow-burn horror into one potent and delectable dish. Debut writer-director Julia Ducournau knows exactly what she wanted to do and did it, and the resultant film is a different breed of horror with no cheap jump scares and with the camera never flinching from all body and animal horror.

During a screening at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, some viewers received emergency medical services after allegedly fainting from the film's graphic scenes. IMHO, this notoriety does it a huge disservice. Perhaps the viewers went into the cinema with an empty stomach or have a weak disposition for copious blood and body horror because Raw is never tacky or cheesy in its depiction of its terror. Ducournau knows the medium well and employs a plethora of aesthetics to drive the terror home. The cinematography is fluid and complicit in the sinister going-ons; it somehow manages to glide seamlessly to places we don't want to go (under the bed covers, in a toilet where blue and yellow collide) and see stuff that we don't want to see (rashes on young flesh). I am never ever going to forget a scene in which a poor horse get tranquillised, a mouth restraint slapped on it, gets tied up and turned upside down in a harness. It was spine-chilling and my mind kept whispering prayers that it will be fine. The takes are long and languid, but purposeful and place us in the thick of things. It felt like I was given full access to an accident site and I was led to study in closed-up the twisted metal and the mangled bodies. I couldn't look away even though I wanted to. The shots are superbly lighted, disconcerting and symbolically rich. Ogle in amazement as the camera follows Justine in the first night of hazing to a make-shift discotheque that resembles hell itself.

IMHO the genius of this lean and mean film is that it manages to make us feel for Justine. We feel the revolting disgust churning inside her as she, a lifelong virginal vegetarian, is forced to swallow a raw offal from a rabbit. The angry crimnson rash that flares up all over her is a manifestation of her disgust, but soon it awakens her cannibalistic core. In Garance Marillier, Ducournau has found the perfect Justine. Her transformation arc is magnificent and her multi-layered performance is career-defining. I still cannot forget the scene of her jiving sexily in front of the mirror, becoming aware of herself sexually. She exudes an animalistic energy so thick and heavy, she fused the scenes together in absolute dread. Her eventual deflowering scene, coupled with the birth of her cannibalistic leanings, is presented in total nerve-wrecking literalness.

Raw isn't for everybody. I wouldn't even say a horror fan will like it. It has an art-house feel to it that may turn some people away. But it is a bold film, sublimely realised, erotic, feral, primal and it will play on your senses long after it is over.