The Pyx

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Chris M I hate this non-linear story telling. I know Christopher Nolan loves it but I find just confusing. Call me old fashioned but I think stories should be beginning, middle and end. But her being alive in some scenes, dead in other scenes. And it's done randomly, it's hard to keep up. Plus most of the movie is this run of the mill drama when during the third act it suddenly perks up as if saying, "Oh yeah, there's a Satanic cult in the movie." Karen Black and Christopher Plummer are wasted in this snooze of a movie. And since it starts with Elizabeth's suicide, it ends with it. So, the big twist of the movie is that you decided to sit through this snore to the climax you already knew was going to happen. 99.99% Of 1970s movie end the same, badly. As if film makers were trying to kill the joy of films from people's souls or something. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 11/15/23 Full Review Audience Member A 70s murder mystery set in Canada. Christopher Plummer plays a detective who becomes obsessed with solving the crime. I enjoyed this movie. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review delysid d this is a great forgotten film that would appeal to fans of the great cronenberg! its a creepy occult film set in 70s montreal, probably close by the island where "shivers" was taking place around the same time Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 05/17/20 Full Review Audience Member Strange but fascinating murder mystery involving a hooker and a connection to a mysterious pyx. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member My husband found this movie on a free film archive. We were intrigued by it because there it was called "The Pyx," which is not a word you hear much outside of the Catholic Church. A pyx is a small circular container for carrying a consecrated Host to the sick or homebound. The movie opens like a Law & Order episode, with Christopher Plummer serving as the movie's Lennie Briscoe. He is called to the scene of the murder of a working girl (Black) who is found grasping a pyx. The rest of the story is told in flashbacks interspersed with the ongoing investigation. Set in the underworld of Montreal, this movie is all about Catholicism. The detective and the working girl are both lapsed Catholics, as are other characters surrounding them. If you are a baptized Catholic who is lapsed, how do you really know if you are still a Catholic in your heart? I would argue that there are two ways to know. First, if you still find yourself crying out to the Blessed Mother in times of great distress, even if you don't ever set foot in a church, you are still Catholic. If you would not allow or be deeply distressed to see a consecrated Host desecrated, you might as well just come home already. Throughout the movie, there is a female voice singing eerie, melancholy folk songs. Who is that singing, we wondered. Is it Joan Baez? No, it was Karen Black herself, which emphasizes the feminine spiritual crisis that is the center of the film's plot. There is one scene where she meets with a potential client. He asks to see her naked and asks if she believes in God. There is something so evil and demonic in this scene. Though there is no kind of penetration - no touching, even - it is definitely a deep violation that leaves the viewer feeling that s/he has just witnessed a rape. The copy on the film archive is grainy. So is the rentable copy on Amazon. There are no subtitles. But you can see and hear enough to know and to appreciate Black's excellent performance in this rare, unique thriller with a theological exhortation on the side. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Audience Member A great story that is delivered in a hard to follow way, only because of the poor filming quality and audio. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Pyx

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