An Exercise In Nonsense

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Shane Brown (Vincent Gallo) and his wife June (Tricia Vessey) check into a Paris hotel. They're supposed to be on a honeymoon but in reality, he's looking for a former colleague to treat for some mysterious condition.The sexual erotic bloodbath is a little shocking but it's not completely outrageous. Mostly, this film is a narrative mess. There is little dialogue. Sometimes, expositions are necessary evils. The plot is like trying to piece together a picture with scraps of half-burnt paper. It's a really trying film. With a better script, this could be something great. Without it, this is barely comprehensible.

On a honeymoon in Paris with his beautiful wife, an American man heads to the home of an exiled medical professional, Léo (Alex Descas), who specializes in the field that Shane (Vincent Gallo) has been involved with: The Human Libido. At Léo's home, Shane meets Léo's wife, Coré (Béatrice Dalle of 'À l'intérieur'), who is kept locked away from the world due to her carnivorous carnal tendencies. The secrets and events that follow will be the most shocking and horrifying of the young couple's lives.Hearing that this film borders on unlikable due to the subject matter, I had to pounce on the opportunity to view it. Expecting a truly shocking and disturbing French horror. . . I was not disappointed. The depth of exploration of sexuality and cannibalism (and the sexuality OF cannibalism) goes unmatched by any single film I've ever seen. While it's not a film that is particularly enjoyable, as it does reach some limits that are unusual for modern cinema of this style, it's still beautifully made and extremely fascinating. The entire cast delivers at least above-adequate performances, some better than others (include Béatrice Dalle in the 'better' category as usual). Like another recent film of Dalle's, 'Trouble Every Day'f features an extremely cringeworthy scene that sent chills up and down my spine. It's not nearly as graphic in a sense of quantity as I'd expected, but the quality of the brutality is what makes the film so effective.Final Verdict: 8/10.-AP3-

From what I've read of him, I do not like Vincent Gallo as a person, and he often physically repulses me. In Trouble Every Day, he does physically repulse me more than ever, yet I do not dislike him in his role. What I must say impresses me about Gallo is his ability as an actor, including performances under his own writing and direction, to play roles devoid of any of the ego that he defensively projects what I've read of his off-screen life and that are crippled by hopeless insecurity and apprehension, which he showcases without a hint of inhibition or unintended uneasiness. That is why I believe he continues to find work in movies in spite of the unbelievable amount of projects from which he was fired or walked away, the amount of people he claims to hate, and the mind-blowingly infuriated critical and audience reaction to his sophomore effort at the helm, The Brown Bunny. All-embracing filmmakers see him as one of the very few actors who has no problem baring himself for a performance as a truly pathetic character. In this film, he is honeymooning with his wife in Paris superficially in an effort to nurture their new life together, however the core reason is so that he can visit a medical clinic where studies of the human libido are undertaken. He hopes to rid himself of the bloodthirsty urges that have always plagued him.The real shock found in this film is my surprise introduction to Beatrice Dalle, who I have never before seen in a movie and near whom I hope to be wearing football gear inside the Batmobile if I ever see her in person. As a doctor's wife who is psychologically in ruins due to a mysterious overextention of her libido and is too dangerous for her husband to let her free from the bedroom during the day, she reaches as deeply into the most basic appetitive animal instincts as she is capable and plainly ensues as a nightmarish monster of berserk chaos. It was clever of writer/director Claire Denis to cast two notoriously wild atypical people of extremity in their roles.Denis's scenes of gore, which due to her focus on the morose feelings of the characters, mainly Gallo, his wife, and Dalle are intermittent and often difficult to anticipate, are extremely disturbing. During a scene where Dalle attacks a person's flesh as they lay in shock, barely able to scream, the sounds made by both Dalle and her victim are heard just barely over the glum, cheerlessly jazzy score. In the other scenes of violence, Denis's wise discerning between the appropriate placement or absence of music asserts a very moving outcome.Though I was expecting a grittier cinematographic delivery, the film is stirring, well made, and metaphorically interpretable.

Admittedly Trouble Every Day is a very different film than most I run across. It's quiet and subtle with so many undertones, I was sometimes left wondering what exactly was being conveyed from scene to scene. The story is a fairly simple one that takes forever to unwind: a former doctor (possibly current doctor, details are kept sparse) honeymoons with his new bride, and uses their trip to track down another doctor who is treating his wife for some sort of sadistic vampirism or something of that sort.The movie, like sex caught on camera, is both disturbing and beautiful, visceral and permeating, yet somehow lacking. So many moments seemed to demand some sort of explanation, as though if you had a guide the journey would be slightly more meaningful. That aside, I was deeply attracted to the overall tone of the film, the confrontation of flesh, and the deeper meanings held within.Look, just see it for yourself. This is definitely not one of those films for everyone. That being said, I feel that if you have a special place in your heart for films like Lost Highway, then you might want to give this one a chance. They're not in the same ballpark, but might be played in the same city if you catch my drift.