I have a migraine, nausea and feeling like death. That's a hangover.
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Movies of 2020...
#45 : Bacurau
A Brazilian horror-western with an exceptionally disquieting tone, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles. A woman returns to a remote outback town – the fictional settlement of Bacurau – which appears to have fallen off the map, as a violent group of foreigners assemble nearby.
A horror-western, eh?!? What exactly is one of them then?!? Well, it certainly has an interesting beginning - firstly a shot from space, then a water truck running over some coffins. Where exactly is this going? Ah - it's going to Bacurau! But it's not entirely clear that Bacurau is going to be happy for them to go there...
Errr - wtf is going on?!? A funeral, some shouting, some TERRIBLE singing, some very pretty skies, a very odd DJ. Ah - when the description above says Bacurau has fallen off the map, it means literally, not figuratively. It's no longer on any maps - odd. And we're back to weird shit happening - a load of books being dumped in the street, a man campaigning for mayor in an empty town, a flying saucer. Hold on - a WHAT?!? A load of horses galloping through town, two mysterious motorbikes, a singing interrogation and now no mobile phone signal. We're 50 minutes into this film now and I've got no idea what's going on - I can't quite decide if it's annoying or intriguing yet, but I feel it's going to have to do something soon-ish.
OK, so some people are dead now just to keep me happy - and it turns out the flying saucer speaks English. And that leads us to another completely random group of people ("the violent group of foreigners" in the description above) who all speak English but we have no idea what they're up to. And they're a freaky looking bunch and no mistake - and also quite unsettling. And they do at least give you some clues as to what might be going on - but no more than that, I'm afraid. We then get some extreme overacting from the good guy (who's not really all that good) as he goes off to see someone who's only been intriguingly mentioned so far in the film - because obviously what this film really needs is more characters with uncertain motives. He does, however, live in a very cool location - an unused dam, so tops marks to the location scout for that.
However, we pretty much leave there immediately and head into a 15 minute section of utter pointlessness - followed by the kids deciding to play "who can go the furthest into the dark?". Like that's gonna end well. Oh no, it doesn't. Well, some more stuff happens and I'd like to pretend I can't tell you because it will explain everything, but that would be lying - for example, the naked gardening really doesn't explain anything. And Spandau Ballet on the soundtrack? Nope - that makes no sense either. But then, all of a sudden, it actually gets quite suspenseful and the western tag actually feels appropriate - and there's certainly an argument there's some horror in there too. And it does manage to conclude in some kind of fashion but it's fair to say that an awful lot of it makes absolutely no sense at all and under any normal circumstances i'd have given up on this film ages ago.
So, what else needs commenting upon? The acting varies from average to terrible - there's nothing to commend the film on that front, although you do get the impression it's not the most experienced cast ever. It's not helped by characters being brought in and out of prominence in the film - you're never entirely sure who you should be investing your time on. The cinematography is an odd mix - some of the landscape/sky shots are beautiful but some of the angles chosen to film the cast are somewhat less beautiful and the choice of the sliding scene changer feels curiously dated. Overall, it's a very curious film which I wouldn't quite describe as terrible, but it's not far off - for me the only reason to watch it is to have your mind blown by the sheer bizarreness of a lot of it, but I'm not entirely convinced that's what The Guardian meant by "exceptionally disquieting".
At the time of writing, this film isn't available to view on any of the usual streaming channels so your mind is safe from being blown and personally, I wouldn't search too hard to try and find it.
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