treylaford

I can't believe anyone would be impressed, or entertained, much less thrilled by this depressing mess of a project. I can't even call it a film, because it has the feel of a student project, executed by the most mediocre of students. Which is precisely what this turns out to be! It's like watching an emaciated person flexing in the mirror. A person so mentally diminished by hunger, they've been convinced they are truly magnificent physical specimens. Now I know that actors are cringe people, as a general rule, but these folks are delusional. Trying to be edgy is never successful- it's either edgy, or it's not. It's a loosely jointed, plotless mess, which a group of theater geeks have lent themselves to desperately, in an attempt to "make it". I think a one star is as rare as a ten star- basically impossible (almost impressively) to attain. Yet I wavered over that nadir for longer than a moment. A nice butt shot rescued this film from the abyss- the veritable star of this show. By far the closest thing to talent any aspect of this farce was able to exhibit. Mired in the miserably depressing shadow of a world war, and subsequent Cold War, even these echoes are hollow, and meaningless. It fails to shock, amuse, or thrill, in any capacity. I hope the participants grow up enough to abhor its existence, and perhaps it will inspire them to be better. To make better career choices. To never sell yourself out completely to a terrible script- if they even had one. It is like a poorly edited batch of acting exercises was bundled into a movie length waste of life, punctuated by one of the most clichéd reveals since silent film was en vogue. Thank goodness for that really nice, prolonged derrière shot, which was the one redeeming part of this stinker. No puns intended. I guess the horror was the prospect of getting a real job- which is what this bus full of hospitality trainees are engaged in? Having a boss who is contemptible, but overall uncaring? Certainly, this is frightening to actors, who always bring up any real jobs they did prior to acting, with wry melancholy, and their most believable thousand yard stare, as though being a waiter, or working construction was the worst thing a human being could be forced to endure. Worse than prison. Worse than stage 4 cancer. Worse than a long road trip with your mother-in-law. Unless you enjoy non sequitur, after non sequitur, after non sequitur, ad infinitum. Not worth any butt shot, however impressive. Don't waste your precious time on this pretentious mess.

Between the musical score, and the sound effects alone- Angst is certain to conjure a panoply of negative emotions; then you add in the narration, and the pathetic narrator, and you've got a movie which will stay with you for awhile. This was certainly the very effect the director desired, and he accomplished it marvelously. Lead actor, Edwin Leder, puts in his most earnest efforts at achieving a potent mixture of disdain, and disgust for his character, never letting vanity get in the way of a depraved scene. (There's an uncanny resemblance between Leder, and GoT's Alfie Allen, who himself has the same ability to waller in someone's diseased creation.) Close up shots of Leder eating a sausage, while unrealistically fantasizing about two young women, goes beyond the limits of tolerance. Loud smacking, and breaking glass get to be annoying, but these are but two stops on the road to true angst. The family he torments isn't given any actual background, or character formation, so instead of feeling any real pity for them, the viewer stays focused on the human worm who is their antagonist. None of this attention is wasted, either, as Leder gobbles up our disgust, smacking, and drooling all the way. German directors are wunderbar at conjuring up these kind of jangly, uncertain feelings in an audience, so well, in fact, the music from Nekromantic came back to haunt me for a moment. If you want to have a disturbing experience, look no further.

Let me start with the good: Cast, location, and acting. Meh: Story, premise, conclusion. Great actors turning in as solid a performance as the material allowed them. A post apocalypse flick, though it never bothers to flesh out any of the details as to why, and how. A nuclear tragedy is all that we know. Three survivors, two men, and one woman. The two men are Black, and White, respectively, which sets up a not very tense, undercurrent of racial conflict. Don't get me wrong- it's not overtly racial, except for one scene it's never mentioned, but that's the tone it's meant to evoke. I suppose it's meant to be clever, and provocative with this devise, but it falls flat. A shame since the cast, and acting was great, the location is gorgeous, but it all seemed wasted. This is a pretentious movie, and I assure you whomever wrote it considers themselves clever. It tries to be profound, and complex, but only comes across as annoyingly incomplete. If you're bored, give it a try.