Verhoeven directs with his usual restraint (i.e. zero) the tale of a self-regarding, too-clever for his own good writer, taking in Catholicism, sexi-time hijinks and at least 15% too much castration anxiety. Affably bonkers and highly recommended for aficionados of unconstrained Freudianism (what are those spiders all about, nudge nudge wink wink)
This turned out to be a bit of a slog / disappointment. The chiaroscuro cinematography is glossy and polished but lacks dynamism and tips too far in favour of artifice. Screenplay and characters feel underdeveloped / insufficiently fleshed out and editing choices are sometimes clunky: Careers Advisor to Betsy (after entire scene of Betsy being unsure about her interests) - "...in the meantime have a think about what really interests you." Cut to close-up of handwritten heading above EMPTY page…
Loved the bit where they all came together to hold up the huge chunk of tarmacadam (
b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶f̶l̶i̶p̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶r̶u̶s̶h̶ ̶i̶n̶n̶o̶c̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶b̶y̶s̶t̶a̶n̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶A̶r̶c̶h̶i̶b̶a̶l̶d̶ ̶M̶o̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶h̶a̶m̶(̶5̶7̶)̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶k̶c̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶f̶u̶l̶l̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶k̶i̶t̶t̶e̶n̶s̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶b̶r̶i̶n̶g̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶r̶p̶h̶a̶n̶a̶g̶e̶). It really cemented their teamliness. 😶
Seriously, this film was so good that Jamais Kitson stayed til the end instead of leaving early to get his train home... and he doesn't even like superheroes.
A film that famously (and by that I of course mean not at all famously) takes the best bits from Argento's Three Mothers trilogy, the Demons films, Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat and infamous opium-snozzler Thomas de Quincey's Suspiria de Profundis... then locks them up in a lead-lined box and buries them 5000 miles away from its screenplay.
"Highlights" include
- Supernatural greenness... almost too much of it to mention! Green-lit smoke, green shoulder-pads, luminescent witchy green mouth-vom-vom, the…
