Take a break from work: watch a trailer…
Do I want to see this movie? Do I want to subject myself to a story about a man who beats women to death just because he enjoys it?
I love Michael Winterbottom’s movies. Casey Affleck has become one of the most fascinating young actors to watch at work. But will any of that be enough for me? I haven’t decided yet.
The Killer Inside Me is now playing in the U.K.; it opens theatrically in the U.S. and Canada on June 18, and will be available on demand on the same day.
It’s kind of an odd book, and while I didn’t like it that much, it’s kind of amazing it came out in the 1950’s with it’s subject matter.
It will at least be interesting to see how the story works in the modern context we view it in.
I am such a sexist. While I can watch men beat the shit out of each other and enjoy it, I find that I can’t watch violence against women any more. So that’s a no.
The impression I get from the trailer is “unalloyed nasty, and oh look I’ve learned about colour palettes in film-making”.
Where’s the character interest in a loony?
I read this book, probably 30 or 40 years ago.
The book is a noir classic and is the early pathfinder for Hannibal Lechtor, Mr Brooks and even Dexter. The whole book was done in first person POV and the real payoff was the end where the killer drops the mask and the innocents finally see him for what he is. Their horror and revulsion at the revelation is seen thru the killers eyes.
Powerful writing. really powerful writing.
That said, I really don’t see how this story can be effective in this modern era. Basicly it is Dexter without a code of conduct.
What is the point in watching a humourless sociopath murder beautiful women for 2 hours?
Oh hell yes.
You do realise you’re dismissing an awful lot of classic films with that comment, don’t you? I mean, Travis Bickle clearly wasn’t playing with a full deck, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone accuse that character of being uninteresting.
I don’t use “loony” to mean “anyone who’s a bit different from me”. The protagonist here, by his own admission, has no idea why he does what he does, he just follows his urges – where’s the character development in that? Even Bickle makes some slight progress in humanity over the course of Taxi Driver.
In effect this is the inverse of the objection to “a loony did it” plots in whodunnits: if there’s no rationality behind the crimes, you can’t work it out rationally, and the reader is cheated.
The impression I got from your initial post was that you hadn’t seen the film yet. Apologies if I’m wrong, but if so it seems premature to talk about whether the film involves any character development.
Alex DeLarge spends the whole of A Clockwork Orange following – or at least trying to follow – his urges, and the context in which he does it and the reactions of the people around him are easily fascinating enough to carry that film.
A Clockwork Orange, Pulp Fiction, This Gun For Hire, etc all rely on the bad , bad lead character coming into conflict with soemthing far worse.
Aelx and his Droogies beating the stuffing out of the rummy in the early part of the film is uninteresting. Alex as the center point of conflict with the soul sucking aversion technos about to unleash their mind control on the rest of us is interesting and turns Alex into a sympathetic character. Ditto, the amoral gangsters in PF being sex slaved by the basement rapists and The Alan Ladd assasin killing Nazis to save Veronica Lake.
In other examples, the nasty lead character gains sympathy and interest because he is visually seen to be fighting his own nastiness (Mr Books) or, at least, killing the wicked in the name of justice ( dozens of vigilante movies like Death Wish, Kill Bill and many if not most of the comic book films).
I submit that a film where the lead murders the innocent and simply enjoys it is pointless and without interest.