Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

benrd-76-890918 Just viewed on DVD. Appalling violent junk. This is not film noir, this is film "in your face" because the director has no idea what he is doing. The exact same storyline by an experienced director would have the same impact without the unsubtle graphic scenes. In the first murder the fake killer would have some marks on his fist to show that he hit victim. This is conveniently overlooked in the script. A better director/scriptwriter would of written her killing in a way that would have been creditable for the fake killer to have done the killing.Remember the killing in the shower in Psycho? An expert did that with not a frame of film wasted. Here we hang on ever shot of a bloodied face with the subtly of a sledge hammer. This film is total junk.

SnoopyStyle On the surface, Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) is a nice 29 year old sheriff's deputy in a Texas oil boom town Central City in the 1950s. He harasses a prostitute named Joyce Lakeland (Jessica Alba) and shows his sadistic side. He becomes obsessed with her. She wants to shakedown Elmer Conway (Jay R. Ferguson), the son of Chester (Ned Beatty) who built half of Central City. Chester gives him $10k to run her out of town. Lou has a different idea. Howard Hendricks (Simon Baker) investigates and seems suspicious of Lou. Lou had a foster brother named Mike who was killed 6 years ago working at a Conway construction. Young Mike and Lou had been involved in a murky incident with a young girl back in the day. Amy Stanton (Kate Stanton) is his girlfriend. Joe Rothman (Elias Koteas) is the union boss.This is a murky moody film noir from director Michael Winterbottom. I really like the style. It is a bit too confused. I think more on the story of young Lou would be helpful early on. Casey Affleck has the boyish looks which make his quiet psychopath character all the more effective. There are a lot of pieces and characters in this movie. It could be a little bit complicated to put the pieces together.

indicomp_ This is a completely misogynistic film; it involves countless acts of violence against women. On top of that, it condones domestic abuse because the female characters are shown liking that abuse."Art" and "freedom of speech" cannot be used as excuses to celebrate messages of hatred. It's not 'just a movie'; media has an affect on individuals and society as a whole. To depict acts of violence without outright condemning the abuse is completely irresponsible writing and directing.I've seen a lot of sexist and misogynistic films but this one is on top of the pile.

Troubleboy Not surprising this piece of crap could only recoup less than ten percent of its cost... what is surprising is that it's on IMDBs Top 5000 list Casey Affleck, who is about the same height as Matt Roloff and twenty pounds lighter, and regardless of his successful brother, is both banal as an actor and unconvincing as a Texas sheriff in this celluloid rubbish. Why any actor worth their salt would sign up for this, beggars belief. Not too mention the social can of worms this garbage opens. People keep reminding me it's a seriously intentioned film that addresses male-hate and male violence in the form of a nightmare. How so? What purpose does this film serve? Highlights violence against women? That's pretty clear, but I can read about that everyday in the Washington Post. Depicting graphic violence against women sells tickets? Didn't work in this case. Perhaps if it had been Casey that was getting his face punched to pulp? I might pay to see that. Regarding the director, Winterbottom, he's about as knock-off as they come; an auteur wannabee who can't make up his mind who he wants to steal from - Kiewslowski, Roeg, Antonionii, Kubrick, and so on. So here's his hat tip to Noe and Haneke. Shame he can't hold a candle. A low-rent 'Blood Simple,' without the story, dialogue (although Casey believes he's Emmett Walsh) acting or direction. Thankfully, based on its numbers, not many people actually saw this forgettable film.