In the past week or so I have seen two rather disturbing movies about dysfunctional families. One was, I think, a masterpiece. The other, a disappointment.
Dogtooth is a peculiar Greek movie that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. A husband and wife raise their children without ever letting them leave the boundaries of their house. They achieve this by feeding them elaborate tales of wild beasts and unspeakable dangers but as the kids become adults the parents go to ever more bizarre lengths to keep their family intact. When the father brings home a co-worker who he pays to 'service' their son, the influence of the outside world finally creeps in.
Imagine if Mike Leigh and David Lynch had a fling while on holiday in Greece. This would be their lovechild. It is incredible. Do try to see it if you can.
We Are What We Are was hailed by critics as Let The Right One In but with cannibals instead of vampires. I can see what they are getting at but this Mexican movie isn't a patch on that modern Swedish classic. When their father dies, the surviving family have to fend for themselves, and seeing as how they've been living on a diet of human flesh you can see how this might present a problem.
There were brief flashes of dark brilliance but most of the movie was flapping around in search of a sense of purpose. It wasn't funny enough to be a black comedy, cutting enough to be a satire or clever enough to be a metaphor for anything else. It ended up a clumsy mess, albeit one with some great scenes of cannibal food preparation.
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Clearly a gap in the cook book market emerges here.
the best family movie I've seen recently is Still Walking, about a Japanese family marking the anniversary of the death of their son / brother. Not really dysfunctional, so I'm reaching here, but it's a wonderful naturalistic movie that is highly recommended
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Clearly a gap in the cook book market emerges here.
Posted by: Josa Young | April 30, 2011 at 02:35 PM
the best family movie I've seen recently is Still Walking, about a Japanese family marking the anniversary of the death of their son / brother. Not really dysfunctional, so I'm reaching here, but it's a wonderful naturalistic movie that is highly recommended
Posted by: Dan | May 01, 2011 at 06:50 PM
Thanks Dan, I love Japanese movies so will check this one out.
Posted by: Scott Pack | May 01, 2011 at 10:21 PM
Dogtooth sounds a little more like Lars von Trier to me..
Posted by: Excerpt Reader | May 02, 2011 at 03:52 PM