BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

eli-ass It's always a pleasure for me just to see a film that's not coming from Hollywood and does not follow a standard scheme in either look or story. And hell yes - this film is different! Very bizarre and dives far deeper into the s--t than Hollywood would allow. But does that make the movie any good? Not for me.I don't think there are spoilers here but who knows ...The movie starts with a couple of "handicapped" guys who show up at the house of the protagonist. They are in search for a drummer to join their rock band and participate at a rock festival. The main character is a drummer and also a famous writer. He is not interested in punk music or the drums too much ... the reason he teams up with the guys is because he wants to see the extremely bad conditions they live in. These conditions couldn't be any worse. All of them live in extremely dirty run down houses. They struggle with drug addiction and other obsessions like one of them seems to be addicted to sex and at least makes the impression he could be a rapist or something. There is not too much depth to the story. It's pretty loose as we basically see the guys hanging around and sometimes preparing for the final rock show. Our drummer is always watching from a very distance. He never offers help to the poor guys rather treating them with disrespect. It seems like the only purpose to see them suffering is to feel better himself when he returns home.The movie also deals with senseless gimmicks to make the film even stranger. For example the first scenes that are completely running backwards for no reason.While I am into punk rock I didn't even like the music.When we come to a bloody ending the film tries to make some meaningful statements that for me come out of nowhere and are not build on the content (cheap content anyway) of the picture before.I really tried to believe there was more to this film - (maybe there is?) but at least I couldn't find it.3.5/10

valis1949 Forget about the music, I don't think that this film is even about that, but EX DRUMMER just might be the most accurate representation of the true character and tenor of Punk. Europe in the mid 1970's was stagnating in a moral, artistic, ethical, and monetary quagmire, and Punk was created as an artistic enema which attempted to flush away all that was glossy and fake, and signify the rage and ugliness of that unpleasant reality. EX DRUMMER demonstrates a valid and realistic brand of Anarchy which has not been dumbed down and sanitized for middle class sensibilities. The movie is ugly, transgressive, and ethically reprehensible, but you can't take your eyes off the screen. Sit back, and let this film burn a hole through the back of your skull. Besides, The Sex Pistols just recycled a motley collection of marching band rifts which, when all is said and done, sound only a bit more outrageous than Alice Cooper anyhow.

GoldmundX A wildly original, very disturbing, portrayal of Belgium's dirty underbelly. A cynical writer who indulges himself with a short visit to life in the gutter by temporarily joining a punk band, does not only sit back to observe the tragic, utterly dysfunctional lives of his fellow band-mates, but takes a sardonic pleasure facilitating their complete downfall, tipping them over the edge. All sense of hope is overshadowed by an omnipresent grey cloud of nihilism.Ex Drummer is raw, dark, and hilarious. The dialogues are brilliant; the 'mongolites' are no match for the spot-on , unforgiving verbal punches of the writer, whose aloof arrogance does not originate from a moral high-ground. As there is no moral, there is no high-ground, there is no meaning. It is what it is. And it's not pretty. But very entertaining.

Dr-Keenk While this may be uncomforting for some, this is something which draws you to a cinema (or not, for some) It might be offensive, it might be raw, but the plain stupidity depicted in this movie is not far from reality, and that is what make this movie so haunting in the first place. If you like a story about little people not making it in the big world, this movie is for you. If you like movies where things all work out in the end, stay away, not for you.Although I must admit I like the author from the novel on which this film is based upon, I was quite shocked to see a film like this, it's quite serious in some parts, quite ridiculous in others, but never falls apart, and that is very, very smart. Thank you Belgium for giving us a decent movie from Europe this year.