One of the most "morbid" hitman stories ever. As opposed to ... a "delightful" hitman story? Yes, because assassination of the evil carries a certain catharsis. But not this one. Joaquin Phoenix plays one of the most disturbed good guys you've seen on-screen; a man so haunted by past demons, even achievements at saving the innocent give him suicidal ideations. He's a robot with a death wish, either to take out or be taken out. Chilling cinematography and soundtrack elevate this to perfection, and since Ramsay also directed We Need to Talk About Kevin, I must seek out her other films.
Mo says:
When I see a good movie like this on Saturday night after a tough call I just say to myself : hey, I couldn't have spent my time any better!
ReplyDeleteAnother brutal brilliant revenge thriller with such a mind-blowing character!!intimidating outside and at the same time fragile inside! With such an attractive body shape: masculine with those battle scars of history of violence and grey beard to enhance his menace.
PHOENIX: What’s the character? At some point, if it’s that outside of me, if it’s a choice, then I’m doing something fucking wrong. If I’m making a decision, if I go, “This is the character now and this is how it goes,” I don’t fucking know. Everything that I’m doing when I’m working is the character. I don’t really understand this idea of like, “My character would never do that.” I always feel like anything’s possible. You don’t know what’s going to work or not. I feel like I’m always discovering the character ‘til the end of shooting, even beyond shooting, if I look back and think about things. Just reacting to the environment. I don’t really know what happens there honestly.
Beautiful first collaboration between 2 genius artists. Both go one better than previous one.
“I [asked], ‘Can you shoot this in eight weeks? . . . Oh, well, at least I tried.’ And she said, ‘Yep.’ I was like, ‘How the fuck could she say yes?'”
—Joaquin Phoenix
Oh this is definitely not the movie to watch after a tough surgery call! Nothing there to lift your spirits! :-D
DeleteWhat Phoenix said is even more disturbing. The fact that he became ‘that’ character...