Gene S
Top shelf acting with a complex, deep, dark story. Great movie.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
07/21/23
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Mark D
Possibly the most depressing film I've ever seen!
Wow! This one sure takes the cake, when it comes to depressing storylines. We first meet this young couple. Neither one has much going for them. She's in trouble at her menial job cleaning a church. He's a pizza slinger. Then things get way worse.
He's let go from his job because the restaurant where he works is closing. Se he gets his last paycheck. Now a normal person would hang on to the money and look for another job. But he decides to put the entire $250 on a cockfight. As luck would have t, the fight gets raided. On his way out, he runs across the person who has his money. He ends up stabbing the guy to get his money and flees.
So now he's on the lam. Well, his girlfriend ends up kidnapping a baby who lives across the alley. So both of them are on the run. And things only get worse. They make just about every bad decision you could make. It's absolutely cringeworthy. And it just keeps getting more and more depressing. Watch this one if you want to feel lousy for the rest of the day.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
ronald h
I'm at a loss as far as rating this movie. I ended up with two stars for the impassioned performances by David Dastmalchian and Karen Gillian. The production values are quite good, too. But this is, without a doubt, one of the bleakest and most dismal films I've ever seen.
Not all films have to have a message; sometimes they're just entertaining. But there's zero entertainment here. With material this dark, I thought that perhaps there must be some kind of purpose or message, but I couldn't find one. Just utter despair.
The most infuriating thing about this film is that it's so well done. It takes a cue from Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," a novel that is so beautifully written but achingly sad at the same time. I guess that's what the filmmaker was going for here. But I kept getting a sense of manipulation and exploitation. There are a couple of scenes in this film that literally made me want to turn away.
It's not a bad movie at all, just an extremely unpleasant one. I hesitate to recommend it.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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Audience Member
Director Colin Schiffli crafts a disturbing romantic crime tragedy that will stick with any viewer who watches it. The two main leads are portrayed heartbreakingly by the actors playing them, adding subtleties and emotions to their performances that feel real and nuanced. The story is also brilliantly written by its lead David Dastmalchian, proving that despite the supporting roles he is usually regulated to, he works just as well as a storyteller as he does a lead. The story is injected with passion from beginning to end, crafting low-life yet emotionally attachable characters that are willing to do anything to accomplish their dreams no matter how corrupt and fanatical they are. This is only further accompanied by beautiful visual direction, allowing the film to flow like poetry with its inclusion of subtle repetition and symbolism. This film is emotionally gravitating coming from a place of passion from a cast and crew of amazing storytellers that, despite its controversial plot, is able to craft a deep character study that will give any viewer a heartwarming and breaking experience.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/03/22
Full Review
Audience Member
This movie is messed up, but powerful performances. Not for the faint of heart or easily distracted.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
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Audience Member
Spoilers: Artistry takes screenwriters like David where it will -- Karen, too, who has written and directed. This tiny-niche indy views: How do a couple, he, an impulsive poor guy just laid off and prone to crime, and, she, a low-IQ, emotionally needy, poor house cleaner who can't hold a job and spends time scavenging through public trash cans for the treasures they can provide, make it? Soon, you figure they probably don't. Karen is another of a carde of bangup, young, talented redheaded actors gracing our screens these days -- Emma Stone, Jane Levy, Holliday Grainger, Jessie Buckley, Sophie Turner, Rose Leslie Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard, Saoirse Ronan. Karen is seasoned and versatile enough to be Gunpowder Milkshake, and this debilitated, needy Ruby, too out of it to know you can't breastfeed if you haven't been pregnant and says she didn't kidnap a neighbor's baby but just took care of her because she was crying. He, Gensan, gets laid off, spends his last check gambling, loses, tries to rob the money back and stabs a guy and steals his car. You just, from the beginning, see where this is going, and you know it won't end well. The title comes from the hymn lyrics: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him, all creatures here below." Of course, it is ironic in one sense -- why is part of his creation these wounded creatures ? He, abused as a youth and socially errant, and she, just a pathetic creature making it through the day? But in another sense it is just descriptive of life, these low socioeconomic people, impulsive, or damaged from the start, with the implied question: Why? Nice photography shows other creatures here below, butterflies, etc. Is this a critique of those prone to crime, murder, kidnaping, somehow blaming it all on nature instead of taking responsibiity for their actions, even though they never really learned to? A critique of the capitalist economy that lays the preconditions for so many falling through the cracks and getting self-destructive or destructive toward others. The stunning finish, where Gensan loves Ruby so much he knows she could not face prison for kidnaping and killing the baby inadvertently, so he kills Ruby and buries both, ends with him standing there alone, and a faint police cruiser siren is in the background. Presumably, his getting what comes natural for what he has done. Same as a butterfly flitting about. Or maybe he killed himself too first, to avoid conviction and prison. We don't know. The ending should have been more definitive, one way or the other. Is there anything we humans can do to avert the human race's production of creatures here below like this pathetic couple? That is the question David is raising in this bleak slice of life.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
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