There’s a lot going on here. Perhaps most intriguingly, there’s a facet of the film that is showing the grotesque as beautifully shot art. It starts with the bizarre opening of the obese women dancing naked but it runs consistently throughout the film. There’s a big painting spelling “revenge” and another of a man shooting another man in the face, a slaughtered bull—and that’s what we see here in the film: beautifully, even artistically rendered ugliness (shots people killing each other, going to the bathroom). It’s harsh, ugly, but beautifully rendered (splendid décor and costume work). It’s not surprising that the reviews were polarizing
Elements of straw dogs (highway scene is tough to watch), Lynch, noir, and Hitchcock (score even sounds Herrmann like)
The editing between the multiple narratives doesn’t exactly come off—it hurts the film
It is a slight disappointment after Ford’s dazzling a single man debut in 2009
Michael Shannon comes off best, then Amy Adams and then Gyllenhaal who has some struggles here—not a great performance from an actor I usually like
Not in the top 10 right now of 2016 but there’s work to do here
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