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Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated A Prophet (Un prophete) (2010) in Movies

Mar 3, 2020 (Updated Mar 3, 2020)

A Prophet (Un prophete) (2010)

2010 | International, Drama

7.0

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Last, but not least, we travel to France and journey into a seedy and disturbingly real world of crime and society in modern Europe. We follow the life of Malik, a confused young Arab man forced into a life of crime by circumstance, as he grows from petty criminal to a man of real power and influence. The whole thing feels dirty, deprived and cold; there isn’t a lot of glamour here. The pinstripe is a leather jacket and a tracksuit; the weapon is as likely to be bare hands or a rusty knife as a gun. The power of this film is in wondering how this young man can ever attain peace and redemption, as he descends deeper into the mire; how he becomes both truly lost and at the same time somehow enlightened. A grim tale, told with a European eye that shuns fancy camera work in favour of forcing you to watch, and think. Not a pleasant film, but an important one.

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Awix (3310 KP) rated Videodrome (1983) in Movies

Apr 9, 2020

Videodrome (1983)

1983 | Horror, Sci-Fi

7.9

(14 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Seminal Cronenberg movie, which, being a Cronenberg movie, doesn't easily fit into any other category. Jaded small-time TV executive becomes obsessed with what looks like a hard-core snuff channel, transmissions of which he stumbles across. But the Videodrome signal has a profound effect on his sense of reality and the world around him begins to warp into new shapes...

Starts off relatively conventionally (I say relatively: for instance, Debbie Harry plays a sado-masochistic radio talk-show host) but soon becomes a dense and challenging rumination on the place of the media in modern society and how we perceive the world - with the grotesque mutated imagery for which Cronenberg was then known, of course. A fascinating and powerful movie, still very timely, although it's clear that they couldn't think of an ending. Cronenberg chose to make this instead of directing Return of the Jedi: there's a parallel universe somewhere where the Ewoks were a lot more messed up.