Antibirth

"Antibirth" starts out promising with some really intriguing characterizations from Natasha Lyonne and Chloe Sevigny. The screenplay has some great dialogue, and Ms. Lyonne in particular is, as usual, fascinating to watch. Unfortunately, as the film begins to develop a plot it becomes more and more derivative, confusing and absurd and stops being enjoyable; it just becomes plodding and dull. There are so many stereotypical subplots from body-horror films as well as ripoffs from "Rosemary's Baby," "Demon Seed" and others that "Antibirth" just becomes another minor product aimed at the quickie Hollywood horror market. Meg Tilly is wasted and looks as though she's still trying to figure out the plot herself during her scenes. I recommend watching the first fifteen minutes and then turning it off and doing something more productive... I stayed until the end and felt ripped off waiting for something to original to happen.

Some folks are partying, a girl named Lou is dragged somewhere by a guy. Next the girl meets with some girlfriends complaining about not feeling well. They joke that she's pregnant. Some sinister guys are collecting urine from females in a fridge. One of them has her lips chewed off or something.

Lou in the meantime starts feeling weirder and weirder and sicker and sicker and indeed starts developing a belly. But that doesn't keep her from getting high non-stop. She has some weird visions. All this takes place in some poor town with a Marine base. There's an awful lot of talk and taking drugs and ridiculous music and silly visions.

At some point Lou meets a woman who seems to have some idea what's going on. She tells her that someone has implanted her with something. She suspects the government is behind this. With her help Lou tracks down some of the bad guys and we more or less find out what they are up to.

It doesn't take long for Lou to be full term and to give birth and here the movie manages to surprise. Some other characters also make an appearance and things do get interesting.

Antibirth focuses on a bunch of ugly people doing ugly things and who listen to hideous music. It's not easy caring about any of them or what's going on, which isn't really much. This is one of those movies, where everything that is said matters. At this pace the movie would have been a solid 2/10. But then suddenly the ending is pretty surprising. The movie works toward something, you know or hope that something interesting will happen, but at the same time you quickly give up. But then suddenly the movie does deliver and it changes one's perspective of the entire film for the better. Clearly a lot more could have been done with this script and the budget should have allowed for a better movie.

I'm going spoiler free on this review, so you'll have to forgive me for being vague. The only joy you'll get from this movie is watching it without knowing where it is going. If you know too much, there's nothing worth watching.

I think there is some merit in seeing this film. My biggest issues with it were the direction it took, which isn't my preferred genre. I really can't say more than that without spoiling it, and I'm sure you're going to rate my review as "not helpful" for saying that, but everyone I said that to at the Phoenix Film Festival (where I saw this film) immediately understood.

What that means for you, dear viewer, is you're going to have to take a gamble. Do you like non-mainstream horror? How open-minded are you? If you like formulaic horror, move along. The movie is bizarre in many ways.

My rating reflects that I was not at all happy with the direction it took (as a personal preference...you might think it was the best ending ever), but I'm actually glad I saw it. If nothing else, it's interesting. The soundtrack is also a nice bonus. Loved the music!

It seems that hard-drinking, bong-ripping, up-for-anything Lou might be pregnant-- although she has a hard time understanding how that could possibly be the case.

Antibirth isn't much of a horror movie, even if it has some decent early creep. It's more of the "independent" genre: high weirdness, with a plot that plays second or third fiddle to its characters. But there is a bit of gross-out thrown in, maybe just for fun. And you might find the prospect of watching a pregnant woman down a fifth of vodka horrifying.

Horror movie or not, AB is a good movie, mostly because of the well-written and well-acted characters. In particular, Natasha Lyonne plays her part perfectly. She makes the entire film work with her drunken, stoned charm.

The actual plot is a little thin; it ends up being just an excuse to make a movie. The pacing is just a tad slow. And the budget is obviously tight (but still, top notch characters).

It's not horror, but if you don't like horror, don't watch it. If you spent your youth being useful rather than getting high, don't watch it. If you just want to be scared, don't watch it. But otherwise, check out Antibirth.

Of course, I freely admit I would watch just about anything starring both Natasha Lyonne and Chloë Sevigny . . . what could possibly go wrong?

OK, all joking aside (well, sort of), Natasha and Chloe are absolutely brilliant here, they nail their characters perfectly, and then some.

As for the film itself, the best description that comes to mind is bizarre, twisted, completely ridiculous . . . and very fun to watch.

This is definitely a low budget, B minus sci-fi horror genre' production, with a dash of evil ET conspiracy twists submerged in a veritable swamp of drug dazed existence. Even if the story, such as it is (or perhaps tries to be) is murky at best, the characters are perfect exaggerations of characters I've seen or met over the years.

If anything, this production consists of a very loosely connected jigsaw puzzle of plot pieces, which serves as a sort of ecosystem for the aforementioned exaggerated real life type characters to flourish in.

Well, maybe flourish isn't exactly the appropriate description here.

But however one may want to judge this production, it certainly can't be criticized for lack of uniqueness.

Chloë is particularly adept at playing various roles in unique productions ("Hit and Miss" immediately comes to mind), but this definitely rates as one of the more, well, experimental sorts of indie film productions she has appeared in.

This film is certainly not for everyone, or even most, but for those with an proclivity toward indie projects more than just a bit outside the box, this just could be your cup of tea.

I'll offer a somewhat tentative 6 stars for this one . . .