We need to see the cousin blow his head off with Tom Savini Maniac level blood splatter and head explosion?
I think these are fair criticisms, although I’d say Donny’s suicide is absolutely not played for laughs, and - to me - is the turning point of the whole movie.
Howso? There are ways to have that happen, and ways to have the cousin commit suicide, without it looking like the Evil Dead remake.
The shot of Emma Stone absolutely covered in blood cannot be taken any other way than laughs, in my opinion. It's like Marvin in the car in Pulp Fiction. Shock, of course, but then a sick punchline
Did you see it in theaters? I saw it sold out, not a single laugh. Just some gasps throughout the theater. I strongly disagree with that assessment, it’s the saddest part of the entire movie.
No, I saw it at home and just watched the scene again to confirm how gratuitous and over the top it is. It is not hard to think of that as a sick punchline, especially alongside the molestation joke scene with Stavvy and Plemons's head roll after he blows himself up. If they were not meant to be played for laughs then he is a more incompetent director that I originally thought. EDIT: Oh wait I'm sorry, Plemons's head actually rocks Emma Stone in the face after he blows up lol
Yeah, it may have an element of absurdist shock to it but I definitely don't think the intention there is to mock him. It's the harshest visualisation of the effects of such abuses of power, coming from both the elite class and the people who were supposed to care about him. It's not just rich vs poor, it's the way the rot seeps all the way down and poisons all of us.
This was the same experience my theatre had I did not say that scene or the suicide needed to happen? I was agreeing with you that the film is cruel to them because they are going lose and die
I don’t see that scene the same way you do. I think it’s a more fair criticism about the scenes with Stavvy. As far as being an incompetent director.. idk, maybe? Sure? I don’t really care to defend him, like i said earlier i don’t like the other stuff he’s made very much. I just know what i took from this movie, which was - at least in parts - fairly different than what you took from it.
See I need to push back on all of this, the film is so strange in its tone and its handling of the characters that your neat analysis of the societal rot created by the rich and powerful doesn't really fit. While I appreciate some of the strangeness in the movie, it also obfuscates the movie's themes in a way that tell me either: A. Lanthimos is looking down on the working class through his depiction of the main characters or B. He has no real hard stance on the topics he is playing around with and is just doing gratuitous cruelty for the sake of it. I have not seen his earlier films so I don't know if there is a through line with one or the other
I don’t think it’s played for “laughs” but I do think it’s played for shock value in a dehumanizing way.
Sub in whatever words you want to use. They represent the oppressed that are either completely powerless and taken advantage of by everyone around them or that have been pushed into psychosis due to online conspiracies.
I honestly do not know why you keep saying this and I'm wondering what part of it was supposed to be "for laughs". Because it was relatively sudden and glossed over? I just felt that made everything more tragic.
I agree about the molestation. You don’t bring in stavos and have him portray it the way he does if that isn’t intended for laughs.
He’s a small town cop in an area that, presumably, is on the lookout for a serial killer. He doesn’t need a historical reason to have a connection with plemons to get him into the house. disagree a bit with the cousin stuff though
Which one? The molestation scene is the one most clearly played for laughs, from having a comedian playing the character to the line delivery to the way it is glossed over The suicide is of course meant to be shocking, but filling a dummy with a bloodbag and splattering it onto Emma Stone in what should be (and I guess still is) the most tragic moment of the film...I don't get what he's going for there The explosion at the end is shocking, but again we have the prosthetic head flying through the air in slow motion and hitting Emma Stone in the face before we get an extreme close up of the gore and viscera The tone of these scenes, as handled by the director of the film, undercuts the tragic nature. That's on purpose, that's intentional, and I think it's dumb and goes along with cruelty for cruelty's sake.
Like, witnessing all of that horror and then having it end on a shitty CGI spaceship with ridiculous aliens and the anticlimactic pop of a bubble...he is very clearly going for black humor throughout the film. The end montage is the only part that worked for me in terms of that tone.
I don't know anything about that actor so I have no context for his casting. I thought it just heightened the lead's backstory and overall fucked upness that he's being relatively chummy with his abuser. He should be angry with him, instead he's angry at aliens.
I really need to rewatch because I tend to agree with you re: Yorgos' tone or portrayal of characters but don't really remember any of these moments being plated for laughs...Plemon's death, maybe. But at the very least, this discussion is making me want to rewatch this. Certainly jnothing bad can come of me rewatching this in a particularly emotional and vulnerable state.
Haven’t watched this but I am enjoying following this discussion. I’ve got nothing to add but I am reminded of when I saw Dogtooth in the theater last summer - a lot of the violence in that is played for laughs, even though nobody in the theater was laughing, only gasps.