http://www.threethousand.com.au/issues/270/Win 1/5 Doubles to The Killer Inside Me When:
In cinemas from August 26
Watch the trailer:
Here
Win:
Thanks to Icon we're running our own exclusive preview screening at Cinema Nova on Wed Aug 25 at 8.30pm! The first 100 people to enter will win a double pass. Email win@threethousand.com.au with the subject ‘Bullshit is for the birds'Print Email Share
Since I don't enjoy films whose gaze lingers on sadistic violence, I was a little worried about Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of Jim Thompson's brutal pulp novel. For god's sake, Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson have stunt doubles for their bashings, and someone appears in the credits as Alba's "prosthetic makeup artist".
However, while terrible and prolonged, the violence is inextricably part of the disconcerting look and tone. Winterbottom eschews stylisation - both noir genre trappings and Eisenhower-era gloss - for something shabbier and more dishevelled, yet not grungy enough to be called 'realism'. The film reminded me most of No Country For Old Men - not just because of its bleached-out rural Texas setting and implacable, stoic killer, but because lines such as "it's always lightest just before the dark" and "she will burn" have the weighty feel of fable, like Tommy Lee Jones's bizarre final monologue.
As titular psychopath Lou Ford, Casey Affleck is a powerfully enigmatic presence. Because the film is told from his perspective, we ride plot twists with him and see the forces that shaped him, but at key moments, Affleck suddenly inhabits this same bland demeanour with chilling malevolence.
By Mel Campbell
Format: Cinema
Genre: Thriller
Keywords: Michael Winterbottom
Australian Competitions Club
