Um Jogo Perverso

Let me say first, that I like things like this...I won't regurgitate the plot...there's enough of that here in the other reviews. What makes this a satisfying watch is that you're really not sure what's going on half the time, why characters do the things they do...at times it appears as one happy family, at other times a bit combative...who's playing who and who has the upper hand ? What is real and what is playing the game ? Simple things can appear as plot holes...or not, given the perspective that can change at a moment's notice. It all comes together at the end, but it's a trippy ride there.

Or is it just a weird good night story? Whatever you make of this, you can't really pin point what it is. At least not as fast as with other movies. To call this weird would be an understatement. If you don't embrace that, you won't have a good time at all watching the movie.

Characters are strange, actions are most often than not unrelatable. Or at least hard to comprehend. Why would that person do this and the other person do that? Shouldn't they be reasonable? If that is what you are thinking (which is perfectly ok or even normal), the movie will annoy you. At least if you keep up the questions and don't just let go. It took me a minute or two myself, but after that I just went with the flow and enjoyed this a lot

It started looking promising - arty, sinister, some good interesting visual stuff, but then it just got too messy trying to be too clever, and I lost interest. By the end it had bounced about that much with reality versus mental health that I didn't really care what was real and what was not and what any of it was about or what happened to anyone. It was just too silly. Acting was pretty mediocre, working with a really thin plot and direction.

Watch on Amazon Prime. This movie is a treat to watch. I'm not really sure what I was looking at sometimes, or exactly what was happening. But I think that is the intent of the creator and I was with her all the way. Know this: the cinematography is really good. Wonderful. There are plenty of creative uses of the camera and setting. The use of color filters added to the movie and I think sets this apart from conventional psycho-thrillers. The story is frank and disturbing and hard to follow. The acting is solid and for the most part honest. The set pieces are beautifully designed. The three women sleeping in the bathtub among mirror balls is a good example. The little girl slumber party. The foot-worshipping conductor. The dark hall of doors. You'll like it. Yes you will. And I think it's gutsy not to offer an explanation of what is "really" happening. We have a solid idea going in: two women need money and decide to exploit a crazy friends insanity to get it. From there you fall into the whole thing. I like movies just like this one. I like creativity and artistic flair. I like brazen, non-linear filmmaking. I like movies with dangerous, sexy, damaged people. I like a heady mix of erotic attraction and repulsion. The plot is not messy or nonsensical. Instead, I see it as a story told from deep in the minds of the participants. But which one and when is not clear all the time. I liked it and I think you will, too.

There is a brash, surreal, out-the-box vibe to Braid that I have to appreciate, but it's hard to ignore the amateurish aspects which make it feel more like a B-movie, whether it's the uneven acting, bratty characters, unstable tone, and almost random attempts to be edgy and experimental.

I absolutely love overt weirdness in movies, but I also believe there must be a solid vision to be able to employ it successfully. What makes surrealism work or not, is perhaps down to personal taste, and since it becomes clear very early on that the director has every intent of sabotaging a 'normal' telling of this story, one then has to rely on intuition as a guide.

My problem is that despite watching with full attention, my intuition kept telling me that this whole ordeal is bupkis. As it devolved into predictably violent terrain, with a poorly drawn detective character, the film began to feel less intelligent, and deliberately inchoate, as though its director put this whole thing together during a manic coke binge.

Instead of the pleasure of watching little pieces of brilliance come together like pieces of a dream, I was simply lost very early on, and when I submitted to that loss, I was bored. There are moments of crazed greatness here, but they are unfortunately not well enough sustained, and arrive along with a mixed bag of scenes and characters that don't amount to a whole lot.