The Machinist.

[sarcaustik]

In a word: disturbing.

Comments

[asw909]

Ah, thanks for reminding me. May go see that this weekend.

[sarcaustik]

I would recommend it, but not immediately before bed. Have something fluffy to watch afterwards.

[eddie777]

Spot on. Christian Bale was painful to look at, which worked very well. I really liked the use of imagery and colour (or lack thereof) throughout the film. The performances worked very well together. Usually, I think it is a very good sign if a film forces me to keep thinking about it and different aspects of it keep occurring to me for some time afterwards. Not before bed, though.

[sarcaustik]

I was thinking about it on the way home this morning - I loved the repetitive imagery of hanged men and hands, and without wishing to spoil it for those who haven't yet seen it, I didn't realise quite how significant the fairground ride was until afterwards.

[sarcaustik]

Made me wonder if I'd lose that much weight if I didn't sleep for a year! ;-)

[ivory_goddess]

The pictures accompanying the reviews are disturbing enough!

[sarcaustik]

Yeah - it's an uncomfortable film to watch, but it has been a long time since I've seen anything that was both challenging and compelling.

[hazyjayne]

I would say: predictable...

[sarcaustik]

I think it was second-guessable, which isn't quite the same. It was possible to stay a step or two ahead of the story, but I wouldn't necessarily say that was a bad thing. I had guessed the twist of The Sixth Sense fairly early on, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film.

Was the cake icon deliberate? ;-)

[eddie777]

I would go with second-guessable as well. The plot was secondary, to my mind. They take a bit of a blunt instrument approach to leading us in the wrong direction. The acting and imagery were high quality, though. Films do not combine verbal and visual imagery as effectively as this often enough.

[sarcaustik]

That's true. A lot of films (though I still can't think of a specific one off the top of my head, which is bugging me) seem to set out to do similar, and get it wrong. Christian Bale's performance hit the fine line between believably screwed-up and totally insane absolutely perfectly.

[steer]

What is it?

[sarcaustik]

A film. eddie777 and I went to see it last night, and we had to watch an episode of 'Family Guy' afterwards to bring about mind wind-down, as it was such a headfuck.

[steer]

Ah... so long since I've been to the pictures I don't even know what the films are called or who the actors are any more.

[sarcaustik]

If it helps, I usually fancy Christian Bale. I didn't in this film though.