Very well executed

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

I just wanted to add, that Van God Los is a truly happened story, about a gang in the Dutch city "Venlo". They murdered lots of people, especially elderly people, and robbed them at their houses... and tortured and slaughtered them... It took the police quit some years to catch them, but luckily they're behind bars now! It happened in 1993 and 1994. In 1997 18 guys were convicted for more than 250 criminal acts of violence. The precise number of killings is not discovered, but many. Only 7 murders were proved, but I must mention (as I'm Dutch) that the Dutch really sucks. About 10 % of the crime delicts are solved in Holland are solved by the police... The guys were convicted to sentences ranging from 10 years to life, with mentioning that punishes for crimes in Holland are too little, as everybody in Holland agrees. The "Bende van Venlo" (gang of venlo) marks a black page in Dutch history.

Van God los / Godforsaken! is about the gang of Venlo. They committed a series of murders between carnival (hence the carnival scenes and the costumes) 1993 and 1994, were subsequently caught and sentenced to prison. The murders shocked because they were committed by people with little motive and committed against random targets. And because violence on this scale is known here mostly from large (foreign) drug gangs where the financial stakes to obtain a cartel are high (several gang-related murders in Amsterdam alone last year).The real and complete story was a lot more complex and involved more people and more killings but is reduced here to the two main people convicted and a girlfriend they both loved. One (Maikel; Tygo Gernandt) has a deprived background but is very talkative and convincing; the other (Stan; Egbert Jan Weeber) more silent and from the upper echelons of society.You make a documentary and get as many facts right and tell the whole story, or you make drama and reduce the story to its bare essentials and fantasize and invent everything else. Here they choose the latter, but can't do away with the documentary style. But you can't have it both ways and that's why this fails somewhat. So we end up with a strange mix where the love relation is probably not that accurate but the details of the killings are.The difficulty is then to get some drama out of a series of random and senseless murders. There's some catharsis at the end, but overall this movie is too bleak and offers no redemption. There are no characters to identify with so the only shock comes from the murders that are brought with well-built tension here. (For a movie without these problems I refer to Boys don't cry).Intensity does not equal good acting. The whole cast is performing above average, not just the intense Tygo Gernandt. A big mistake is the voice-over, because it neither has the dramatic intensity to impress and the movie gets stuck a bit by not letting that go somewhere along the way. In the story I found it strange to see the character of Sef disappearing and re-entering at random.With its Gothic and catholic themes and classical music the movie has a sufficient overall art direction and design. Also the depressing town of Venlo is well projected. The movie sometimes looks too grainy and amateuristic technically.Overall direction is not strong. This is not A Clockwork Orange, but some parts are interesting: for example the part where the Turkish gang is presented in the Godfather-way (in fact the godfather never looks the two Dutch gang members in their face and refuses to speak their language).This movie is hailed as one of the best ever made in the Netherlands where in fact it is an average, but somewhat interesting movie. As about dramatizing actual events, wouldn't it be a good idea to pick up on the Van Gogh-murder.

Van God Los, a crime story loosely based on the 'gang of Venlo', has some interesting elements. First off, the acting is rather good, and Gernandt truly shines as 'bad guy'. When having to play a more social character who wishes to become father, the problems arise just there. Keep on type-casting him for the bad guy, he can do that just fine.Secondly, the movie keeps focussed on it's main story and doesn't wander off. This way it's high paced and it's what the movie needed.The other actors convince as well and the story is sad, compelling and tough to watch at the same time. Too bad though the movie isn't wrapped up too nicely, the end scene when Stan wants to die was silly at best.But overall, a decent flick. We've seen worse around these parts of the world. 6/10.

The story about the 'bende van Venlo' has been the basis for this film. Which has resulted in one of the best dutch films ever. Featuring a good cast with very strong acting. Especially from tygo. The unknown (to me) E.J. Weeber makes a very good impression. This film really is going to make me watch more dutch releases. I'm anxious to see more from P. Kuijpers.