{"id":2585,"date":"2013-02-05T16:45:56","date_gmt":"2013-02-05T15:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=2585"},"modified":"2013-02-05T16:45:56","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T15:45:56","slug":"bullhead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2013\/02\/05\/bullhead\/","title":{"rendered":"Bullhead"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Bullhead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Cinema

\nRelease date:<\/B> 1 February 2013

\nVenues:<\/B> Key cities

\nDistributor:<\/B> Soda Pictures

\nDirector:<\/B> Micha&#235l R. Roskam

\nWriter:<\/B> Micha&#235l R. Roskam

\nOriginal title:<\/B> Rundskop

\nCast:<\/B> Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeroen Perceval, Jeanne Dandoy

\nBelgium\/Netherlands 2011

\n129 mins
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It’s all about meat.<\/p>\n

Then again, why wouldn\u2019t it be?<\/p>\n

Michael R. Roskam’s unique and harrowing crime melodrama Bullhead<\/i> is a dark, classic tale of friendship and betrayal against one of the most original backdrops ever utilized in a gangster picture. Hallmarks of the genre \u2013 double crosses, filthy brute force, intimidation of the worst kind \u2013 are transplanted to Belgium, with Goodfellas<\/i>-styled hoods in the roles of two-fisted laconic farmers, veterinarians and feed suppliers.<\/p>\n

It’s film noir<\/i> crossed with a sprawling, operatic, Visconti-like virtuosity, yet tinged with the earthy stench of cow shit mixed with the sour metallic odour of blood.<\/p>\n

Witness:<\/p>\n

A super-buff stud works out maniacally in the dark after plunging steroids into his firm, sleek buttocks. <\/p>\n

A cow’s belly is sliced open without painkiller. A calf is ripped from the gaping cavity of viscous fluids. The dazed newborn, covered with glistening viscera, is tossed violently into a filthy metal tub.<\/p>\n

An ecstasy-and-booze-filled ladies\u2019 man is dragged out of the glare of a lone street lamp and hauled into the shadows of night, so viciously beaten he’ll live the rest of his life as a vegetable.<\/p>\n

Covert dinner meetings between thugs \u2013 fuelled by booze and sumptuously prepared steaks \u2013 occur surreptitiously on farms, in barns and within feed warehouses. Deals, deliveries and alliances are discussed as forks and knives dig savagely into slabs of meat on platters garnished with little more than boiled potatoes \u2013 soaking up pools of blood and fat that ooze from the steroid-enhanced comestibles.<\/p>\n

Bucolic Belgian farmlands at dusk and twilight mask an evil criminal world of organized steroid users and purveyors \u2013 peddling livestock pumped to the max with growth-and-fat-enhancing drugs.<\/p>\n

A brick lifted high in the air, touching the heavens before slamming down repeatedly, smashing a pair of testicles to a pulp \u2013 forcing the owner of the mashed potato nuts to begin a life that\u2019s an uphill Sisyphean climb.<\/p>\n

Bullhead<\/i> is one great and original gangster picture.<\/p>\n

From the innocence of childhood to the corruption-tarnished cusp between youth and middle age, writer-director Michael R. Roskam charts the friendship between Jacky (Matthias Schoenaerts) and Diederik (Jeroen Perceval). As kids they are groomed for a life in illicit meat manufacturing and their lives are as inextricably linked as they are estranged after an early tragedy results in a dizzying criminal ascension and a downward-spiralling fate.<\/p>\n

Roskam’s screenplay brilliantly lays out a myriad of crooked relationships, complex and virtually impenetrable \u2018business deals\u2019 and friendships that are as intense as they are fraught with guilt mixed with immoral layers. The ins and outs of the \u2018mysteries\u2019 become as obtuse as those in The Big Sleep<\/i>. At times, we think we have a grasp on what’s happening, but the layers of plot are ultimately too thick to follow. It almost doesn’t matter. What we know for certain is that bad shit is coming down. That’s all we really need to know.<\/p>\n

Through it all is the staggering performance of Matthias Schoenaerts \u2013 brooding, physical and steeped in humanity. His eyes are extraordinary \u2013 shifting in one moment from soulful to dead like a shark.<\/p>\n

Roskam’s mise en sc\u00e8ne<\/i> is first rate. His compositions are painterly and the cinematography manages to capture a sense of dreariness so that it’s positively exciting \u2013 etching night exteriors like masterly impressionist paintings and dramatic picture compositions that are as thrilling as they’re simplistically evocative in terms of both spatial geography and the ever-shifting dynamics of the characters. The pace weirdly evokes country life \u2013 it’s slow, but never lugubrious. Roskam hooks us like a master and leads us where he needs to and wants to \u2013 on HIS terms and those that the story demands.<\/p>\n

Early in the film, we hear a life manifesto that boils down to one thing: <\/p>\n

\u2018Everything is fucked!\u2019<\/p>\n

And so it is in Bullhead<\/i>. It’s gloriously, deliriously and viciously fucked \u2013 an amoral, cynical, nihilistic and narcissistic 70s style of nastiness brought miraculously to life in a contemporary world of cow shit and gangsters.<\/p>\n

We even get some redemption, but a steep price is paid for it.<\/p>\n

As it should be.<\/p>\n

Greg Klymkiw<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s all about meat.
\nReview by Greg Klymkiw<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[567,94,80,568,569],"class_list":["post-2585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-check-it-out","category-cinema-releases","tag-belgian-cinema","tag-crime-thriller","tag-film-noir","tag-gangster-movie","tag-illegal-meat-industry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/surUP-bullhead","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2878,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2013\/05\/06\/illumination\/","url_meta":{"origin":2585,"position":0},"title":"Illumination","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"May 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Krzysztof Zanussi's film is a visually complex, perceptive and compassionate examination of the essence of knowledge and truth. 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