The visual effects used to create the illusion that Arlen is an amputee are seamless, and the yellow shorts with a winking face printed on the back is a cool visual device. Waterhouse, known mainly as a model and entrepreneur, comes off like a cross between Cara Delevingne and Kristen Stewart.
There’s an audience for this, and it would probably play well at a festival like South by Southwest, but The Bad Batch is self-indulgent and meanders without a centre to anchor it. While vastly more expansive than Amirpour’s first film, she’s hardly ‘gone Hollywood’ with her sophomore effort, which is almost defiantly weird. Often graphic when it’s not moving very slowly, it’s often a challenge to watch. This is a heady, trippy experience, abstract art painted on a canvas of post-apocalyptic desolation. It’s destined for cult status, and VICE Creative Director Eddy Moretti, who is an executive producer on this film, dubbed Amirpour “the next Tarantino”. The Bad Batch is hard to describe, and even harder to review. The Bad Batch is written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, who made her feature film debut with the “Iranian vampire spaghetti western” A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. A relationship fraught with tension and attraction develops between Arlen and Miami Man, as they fight for survival in an unforgiving world. Miami Man (Momoa), one of the cannibals who kidnapped Arlen, is searching for his lost daughter Honey (Fink), who has been adopted by The Dream. The Dream (Reeves), a drug lord, rules over Comfort, keeping his followers compliant by supplying them with illicit substances during raves. Arlen manages to escape, and is taken by a Hermit (Carrey) to a settlement called Comfort. Arlen is captured by cannibals, who saw off and eat her arm and leg. She is part of ‘the bad batch’, individuals deemed unproductive to society, and exiled to fend for themselves. Our heroine is Arlen (Waterhouse), who wanders across the god-forsaken Texas desert. This twisted, post-apocalyptic fairy tale is very mad indeed. Whether it’s dehydration-induced hallucination, the sense of isolation in a vast open space, or just the arid heat, the desert is fine backdrop against which madness can unfold. There’s something about the desert that inspires madness. Rating : M18 (Some Disturbing Scenes and Drug Use) Cast : Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Yolonda Ross, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Diego Luna, Giovanni Ribisi, Jayda Fink
0 kommentar(er)
