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Drawing Restraint 9

Play trailer Drawing Restraint 9 2005 2h 23m Fantasy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
60% Tomatometer 48 Reviews 68% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
In an experimental film, two Westerners (Matthew Barney, Björk) board a Japanese whaling vessel and don wedding clothing for a special ceremony. Meanwhile, the ship's crew constructs a mold for a lozenge-shaped symbol, and the captain regales the Westerners with tales of the ship's history.
Drawing Restraint 9

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Some of the images are striking, if confusing, but the film is unbearably slow and tedious.

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Critics Reviews

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John Monaghan Detroit Free Press 09/08/2006
3/4
Drawing Restraint 9 belongs to an endangered species of experimental film that walks the line between challenging and alienating its audience. Go to Full Review
Marc Savlov Austin Chronicle 07/08/2006
3/5
Throughout, Barney drowns the screen in arresting images ... that nail your eyes to the screen. Go to Full Review
Bob Townsend Atlanta Journal-Constitution 06/01/2006
B-
Sitting through the film's tedious unfolding can be an interesting mental exercise. Go to Full Review
Kathy Fennessy Seattle Film Blog 07/01/2024
2.5/4
Drawing Restraint 9 is performance art as film: music--some quite irritating--is abundant, while dialogue is virtually non-existent. It's mostly a series of set pieces revolving around two "Occidental Guests" (Barney and Björk). Go to Full Review
Anton Bitel Film4 09/25/2007
A work as vast, monstrous, and mysteriously graceful as a whale. Go to Full Review
Robert W. Butler Kansas City Star 03/09/2007
3/4
Conventional storytelling may not be Barney's thing, but he has a superb cinematic eye, an incredible imagination and the wherewithal to make his visions happen. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Dimitris T 07/25/2024 Slowly pacing but consistent and efficient with the themes it explores. This film develops its main story, the romance growing between two western visitors aboard a Japanese whaling vessel, in tandem with some artistic processes that have a kind of ritualistic character, all with injected aspects of Japanese culture. It may be a difficult watch, but it is curious to look at. See more 04/15/2016 if you are up to the challenge and approach it with a little bit of prepartion, there is plenty of beauty and hypnotism here. but, compared to the Cremaster juggernaut, it definitely is a more open-ended, emptier universe. See more 04/07/2012 This film is as self-absorbed and annoying as it is fascinating and visually tasteful. If you like pretentious new age art, this film is for you. See more 02/22/2011 Antes de empezar a describir la tortura que es ver esta cinta dejenme confesar que soy fan de la musica de Bjork y tambien de la serie "Cremaster" del director Matthew Barney. "Cremaster" funciona por su corta duracion y por el hecho de que uno puede dejar de verlos y no se pierde de mucho; en realidad son como videos experimentales sin una narrativa. Ahora imaginense un video "Cremaster"que dura mas de dos horas y cuarto y que cuenta con uno de los soundtracks mas irritantes que han escuchado. "Drawing Restraint 9" es un proyecto de total vanidad para Bjork y Barney, casi como una perversa prueba a la audiencia para provocarla a salirse y maldecir a los que crearon semejante experimento putrido. He aqui una de las peliculas mas frustantes que he tenido que aguantar. En su aire pretensioso y pseudo-intelectual, "Drawing Restraint 9" es equivalente a los cuadros en los museos modernos con un solo rectangulo de color. Simplemente no vale nada. See more 01/12/2011 I read a review on IMDB that said this movie felt more like a witnessing/experiencing of an ancient magic ritual. Some might hate this movie because it's long, slow, and it lacks a narrative. I, however, loved it as an art film. It's a great follow-up to the Cremaster Cycle. See more 03/31/2010 Lush. Ethereal. Other-worldly. Utterly bizarre. Defies viewer expectations as to what constitutes a "movie"(as "good" movies should). Thus, those who prefer formulaic Hollywood-style reductions of cinema capable of rendering plot synopses that can be delineated in a paragraph will be endlessly frustrated and bemused and will bemoan Mr. Barney as self-indulgent (which is perhaps a somewhat accurate characterization, though not necessarily a derogatory one in this context), pretentious, and condescending. To put it bluntly, this one of those dreaded films where "nothing happens." Without hesitation, I will say that this is perhaps the most visually stunning, phantasmagoric, and audacious film I have ever seen (with perhaps the noted exception of Alejandro Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain"), capturing some of the strangest and most beautiful images I have ever seen on film. The scope and scale of production are astounding in themselves. Truly a remarkable achievement and a testament to Mr. Barney's unflinching vision and relentless dedication to his craft. Thus, to provisionally encapsulate the linear thread of the film for the uninitiated, the curious, and/or those bored enough to have read this far and to contradict my earlier statement about reductive synopses: Two "strangers," Mr. Barney, and beloved/despised Icelandic chanteuse, Bjork (who composed the film's soundtrack, providing the aural contrast to Mr. Barney's visual cornucopia), board a Japanese whaling ship. The two are individually led through the byzantine corridors of the ship and undergo various ritualistic preparations. The two meet below decks at a tea ceremony where they proceed to amorously engage and ritualistically mutilate one another with ceremonial blades, culminating in their submersion into a tea-like liquid and transformation into Cetaceans.... Speaking for myself, to put a qualifying phrase tautologously, I feel that "Drawing Restraint 9" is best conceived as a meditation on the creation of art, a glimpse into a process beyond rational comprehension, and a beautiful homage to Japanese culture and mythology. A "film" meant to evoke, provoke, and inspire, not to passively entertain. This is an exercise that necessitates viewer participation and open receptivity.Those seeking lulling, mindless, hedonistic pleasure in the insipid formulas of Hollywood should look elsewhere for their fix. The milquetoast need not apply. (Was that self-indulgent, pretentious and condescending enough?) See more Read all reviews
Drawing Restraint 9

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Movie Info

Synopsis In an experimental film, two Westerners (Matthew Barney, Björk) board a Japanese whaling vessel and don wedding clothing for a special ceremony. Meanwhile, the ship's crew constructs a mold for a lozenge-shaped symbol, and the captain regales the Westerners with tales of the ship's history.
Director
Matthew Barney
Producer
Matthew Barney, Barbara Gladstone
Screenwriter
Matthew Barney
Production Co
Restraint LLC
Genre
Fantasy
Original Language
English
Rerelease Date (Theaters)
Mar 29, 2006
Box Office (Gross USA)
$225.0K
Runtime
2h 23m