4/3/20 - KNIVES AND SKIN (2019) - 5+/10

Neon infused. Technicolor haunting. Ominous fades. A proto emo trip.

Take a simple story and make it as narratively and character obtuse as possible. Lynchian in its small town darkness and inexplicable oddity. Solondz in its cruel idiosyncratic disturbia. Everyone in pain, guarded, exposed in the bizarre. New millennium retro Brick skeleton meets Repo Man quizzicalness. Whether you love it or hate it, is quite engaging.

A constant gratuitous wtf. It must be meant to evoke such a feeling. It is disgusting in its obsequiousness and extremeness. Is it the seriousness with which every character takes the world and expresses their terse isolation and contempt. In that way, it kind of becomes hard to watch. Such malice, uncaring, and emotional ineptitude. As though it was wickedness weaved like a sorceress casting spells of emptiness and sorrow - an empathy enchantment of darkest order.

The music and editing tends to constantly evoke revelation and emotional resolution; yet we are forever denied. I kind of admire the denial, but it still perturbs. Acapella radio pop musical worms through the open wounds.  It carved the ulcerating voids and left their hollowness forsaken.

Diverse casting and stories which I found fascinating. Multicultural, generational, varied psychological and distinctly feminine, or views were those of outside the stock standard Hollywood model. I can’t say that it always connected with me or if I was supposed to alltogether identify with it. The film’s voice was its own, detrimental or not. I mean, it is all so surreal/oddball; everyone is a capital C character, but something about scenes like the vaginal items pass-back-and-forth or the tiger-tee speaking in the mirror seemed so unique. Such a disconnection from average reality, whatever that means… Or perhaps it was my own biases confronted.

Mean is all we have - fitting for the world and movie as a whole. I suppose there is some kind of culminating positivity, but it feels improper that the loss at the core of the entire film’s machinations doesn’t really play any part other than a venturing impetus. But that venture did find resolution in personal revelation and love...

I give this the nod for audacity, unique storytelling, and being bold. It is a film that I can’t deny it’s intrigue, even if I was often wondering whether I liked what I was seeing or my mouth was agape at the strange enigmas.