Chicago Film Festival
CHICAGO -- How do you say "Coen brothers" in Dutch? Stick a "van der" in front? Essentially, that's the name that could fit Dutch filmmaker Alex Van Warmerdam, who has cobbled out a Coen-ish comedy.
Arousing more than a few bursts of audience laughter at the Chicago International Film Festival, "Grimm" trips along on a twisted narrative course, previously charted by David Lynch and Luis Bunuel. While there are some hilarious peculiarities in this roadshow, "Grimm" is pretty much of a groan.
Crammed with derivative elements, it's a veritable primer on Surreal Comedy for Dummies, which, at a film festival, means there's a significant part of the audience who believe they've "discovered" originality. Dark humor, rancid imagery and anti-bourgeois philosophy are the Lynch-pins of the film's nebulous plot line.
Meandering out in a twisted variation on "Hansel and Gretel", older teenage siblings Jacob (Jacob Derwig) and Marie (Halina Reijn) are led into the deep, dark woods by their father and then abandoned, left only with instructions to seek out their uncle in Spain.
As they skip, dash and stumble through the woods, mountains and an Old West ghost town on the way to Uncle's house, they encounter oddities and obstacles: A horny farmwife ravages John, and abundant farm animals (of varying degrees of symbolic importance) enliven their journey. When the roadside distractions dwindle, screenwriters van Warmerdam and Otakar Votocek heave in the ever-serviceable incest subplot, as Jacob and Marie rub-a-dub in the tub.
Eventually, J&M ramble into Spain, or as film-savvy viewers might notice, Bunuel-ville: Sadism, dead carcasses and a quick poke at the Catholic church are the aesthetic elements that are herein plundered. While his copycat filmmaking wears thin, van Warmerdam's musical skills brim: He's plucked and thumped a jaggedly pulsating musical track. Emulating "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" blues-ings, "Grimm"'s musical journey charts a deeper chord than the film's shallow narrative.
CHICAGO -- How do you say "Coen brothers" in Dutch? Stick a "van der" in front? Essentially, that's the name that could fit Dutch filmmaker Alex Van Warmerdam, who has cobbled out a Coen-ish comedy.
Arousing more than a few bursts of audience laughter at the Chicago International Film Festival, "Grimm" trips along on a twisted narrative course, previously charted by David Lynch and Luis Bunuel. While there are some hilarious peculiarities in this roadshow, "Grimm" is pretty much of a groan.
Crammed with derivative elements, it's a veritable primer on Surreal Comedy for Dummies, which, at a film festival, means there's a significant part of the audience who believe they've "discovered" originality. Dark humor, rancid imagery and anti-bourgeois philosophy are the Lynch-pins of the film's nebulous plot line.
Meandering out in a twisted variation on "Hansel and Gretel", older teenage siblings Jacob (Jacob Derwig) and Marie (Halina Reijn) are led into the deep, dark woods by their father and then abandoned, left only with instructions to seek out their uncle in Spain.
As they skip, dash and stumble through the woods, mountains and an Old West ghost town on the way to Uncle's house, they encounter oddities and obstacles: A horny farmwife ravages John, and abundant farm animals (of varying degrees of symbolic importance) enliven their journey. When the roadside distractions dwindle, screenwriters van Warmerdam and Otakar Votocek heave in the ever-serviceable incest subplot, as Jacob and Marie rub-a-dub in the tub.
Eventually, J&M ramble into Spain, or as film-savvy viewers might notice, Bunuel-ville: Sadism, dead carcasses and a quick poke at the Catholic church are the aesthetic elements that are herein plundered. While his copycat filmmaking wears thin, van Warmerdam's musical skills brim: He's plucked and thumped a jaggedly pulsating musical track. Emulating "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" blues-ings, "Grimm"'s musical journey charts a deeper chord than the film's shallow narrative.
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