One of These Days

"Only horses are given the coup de grâce" 2.0 (Trump Era Edition)

Sydney Pollack's film THEY SHOOT HORSES, DONT THEY? (1969) was set during the Great Depression in 1932 and featured Jane FONDA and Michael SARRAZIN taking part in a dance marathon. In 2019, 20 people hold their hands on a truck - until they drop! Some things never seem to change. Class society relentlessly divides the haves and the have-nots.

The whole thing takes place in Louisiana. The focus is on the young father Kyle (Joe COLE), who lives on a subsistence level with his wife (Callie HERNANDEZ) and son. The idea for the competition comes from car dealership employee Joan (Carrie PRESTON), but she also has her strange sides. There is a twist that you don't expect and that won't be revealed here. What's on offer is a frightening insight into American society, well acted and well made. Why the German director Bastian GÜNTHER cannot find any comparable grievances in German-speaking countries remains his secret. The film will certainly not find an enthusiastic cinema audience in America itself.

Good film, but it can also be depressing. So far, the film, which was shown in the PANORAMA section at the BERLINALE 2020, has only grossed USD 5,000 worldwide in the box office (source: The NUMBERS). There should be more to come!

In many ways a compelling story, but the editing threw me for a loop. Literally, if you take the last 16, 17 minutes of the movie and slap it onto the beginning, this largely becomes an entertaining, cohesive film. But there are some strange twists in this film, like the story should be about Carrie Preston's character, but maybe the film maker lost interest in finishing her story. Further, the ultimate "decision" made by the perceived protagonist of the story doesn't make much sense, as it didn't seem to come from any real issue taking place -- there was simply no reason for it. Would I recommend this film? Maybe to someone like me, who watched it because I'm a huge Joe Cole fan, and I like watching HIM in particular, but otherwise, probably not.

This story really does sound like it only could happen for real in America. Stupid scripts, can turn out to be good movies, but did it work this time around?

The good: I must give it to them, the acting was better than I expected, with lots of weirdo characters acting really well. That's the best part of this movie, the characters and man are they s89*)d up.

However...

The bad: however stupid (and potentially) funny this story sounded at the beginning I soon realised that this movie was a DUD. Going nowhere. Slow. Boring. Obnoxiously boring.

At least a rewrite of the script is in order. A lot shorter. Perhaps then, this movie could be worthwhile a watch, now it beats taking a sleeping pill....

Joan Dempsey (Carrie Preston) is organizing a promotional contest for a car dealership. The participants have to keep their hands on a truck until the last one wins that truck. Kyle Parson (Joe Cole) is a quiet contestant with a young family.

Actual hands-on contests are very boring for a long time. Like most movies, they gin up the situation with some manufactured drama. Although at two hours, this movie is too long by a quarter. Joan's personal life is unnecessary. I like Carrie Preston but she could still have plenty of screen time by diving more into the contest. There are a couple of interesting unforeseen turns in this movie. This could be great tense drama. It just needs to tighten up.

Waste of time. Waste of money. Waste of talent. Granted this may be on a somewhat superficial level.

On a deeper level it's a boring slog. That said, there's room for some pretentious interpretation, like social criticism. Unfortunately, I didn't think the topic was conceptually interesting enough to engage with it so I was bored instead.

The ending was a relief to be honest. I felt the same relief I Imagine the people taking part in these games must feel after 100 hours. Only, the movie sapped out 2 out of me.