Cruel & Incomum

There's a classic sense of horror to this story, something that seems vaguely like something that Terry Gilliam would have done. I'm hesitant to provide specific details about the story, but I can say this- It's unpredictable. Every time I thought I was certain about how things were going to play out, the story surprised me. It's manipulative, but not in a way that bothered me. You keep getting exposed to new information throughout, and you are forced to re-evaluate your perspective each time.

It's a distressing, but also very uplifting exploration of human failings as well as our ability to force ourselves to rise above those failings.

I realize I'm writing this review in a vague way. All I can say is that you should watch it. It very gradually ramps up, and the longer you watch, the more you'll want to see what happens.

I Went for the premiere of this film in Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. Everything is perfect, the performing of actors and actresses are persuasive, the story is simple in fact, but by the editing, it makes the plot more interesting and digging deeper. The philosophy of life and love in the film makes it worth seeing it again and again. The twists in the second half of the film leads the story to an unexpected touching ending. In the end, it turns out to be a movie warm and full of love. Really impressive, and it blows my mind. The movie score seems a little weak comparing to other aspects. In addition, for the first half, some scenes repeat too much times but reveals less. But those are not so important. Please go and see it.

At the beginning there are limited information about story and characters so it seems the main character is just a victim. However, the impression has been changing as the story has gone on. Gradually we can find each characters actual feelings. And I could not expect such a ending, so I should say this is great movie!

I don't want to say too much about this film since I feel like the less you know about it going in the better.

For such a low budget they really did a great job with this. All the actors did a very good job, the story was excellent, and even the small soundtrack was memorable. The highlight of the movie is the original story, it's really an interesting idea and the movie does a perfect job of bringing the idea to life.

I'll keep the review very short by saying that this is definitely worth seeing. I don't think it is an amazing film, but it is clever and very original, two things that many higher budget films fail at achieving.

7.5/10

Yeah, I know. The summary seems a bit oxymoronic, but if you've seen it, you'll know what I mean. This is a movie that gets more mileage per production dollar than 95% of what you will ever see.

Bleak almost throughout, and repetitive, but welcome to purgatory. It's totally necessary, if a bit confusing at times. I'd like to see it again, now that the premise is firmly in focus. It's a movie that is better, in some ways, the second time around.

The acting is mostly great, but the unrelenting hostility of Doris gets a bit wearing. (I have an unfortunate tendency to put "real world" values on movie characters) There isn't a bit of wasted emotion coming from her, though...it's just 'her.' Very true to the character.

There are a number of moments of doubt about some of the characters, the chief protagonists, mainly. This is all to the good, in my opinion.

I really hope the other projects involving the writer\director, Merlin Dervisevic, are as good. I'm sure going to be looking for them.