Hey folks, Harry here with the latest serial killing is cool film to sweep the minds of the depraved for all time. This "Boogie Nights of Serial Killer Flicks" apparently comes from Matthew Bright, the man behind FREEWAY and CONFESSIONS OF A TRICK BABY. Two of his 'fairy tales gone awry' films. Matthew has a penchant for celebrating the depraved, relishing in wrong, showing how natural it is to those with no scrupels, how it isn't a big leap to go from talking about it, to just doing it. It's what I like to call naughty films. Their the type that you sit there with your mouth aghast suspended in a disbelieving smile going... Oh my god... this is soooooo wrong... NOT, YES, NOT, YES... and on and on through out the film. You tend to elbow your fellow filmgoer with a look of incredulity. That's a Matthew Bright flick, and this certainly sounds like one. Here ya go....
Chauncey Gardner:
Matthew Bright's previous film was FREEWAY, a movie which I didn't catch but one that tends to polarize people into love it or hate it camps. With BUNDY, I think people will either hail the film a Scorsese level masterpiece, or accuse Matthew Bright of being the next antichrist.
It's that audacious a piece of filmmaking, blowing the previous Mark Harmon TV movie to smithereens. Personally, I think this film's an edit (literally one edit) away from being a modern masterpiece. It's the movie American Psycho wanted to be, a balls out, no punches pulled examination of a sick and twisted soul. What makes the film so horrifying is the intimacy Matthew establishes between the audience and his "protagonist".
This story is told from the point of view of Ted, a legend in his own mind, and the filmmaker thrusts us into his deranged world so successfully you practically feel like an accomplice to his crimes. It also has a tone that shifts wildly from pitch black comedy to sheer, undiluted horror. Picture Henry: Portait of a Serial Killer directed by the mutant love-child of Martin Scorsese and David Lynch and you'll get an idea of how intense this film is.
It's the Boogie Nights of serial killer flicks, tracing in lurid detail Ted's progression from masturbating peeping Tom to one of the most notorious mass murderers in history. Some will no doubt feel this movie glorifies Ted Bundy, but those are the same people who believe movies compel people to commit violence. This film merely presents Ted with all his human contradictions in tact. He wasn't your stereotypical madman. He was charming, attractive, intelligent, as well as sadistic, and so is this film.
The centerpiece of this movie is Michael Reilly Burke's chilling portrayal of the superstar serial killer. How good is he? We're talking De Niro as Travis Bickle good, Hopkins as Hannibal good. He becomes Ted Bundy in all his horrifying and devilish charisma, and that's a good thing too because he's in virtually every scene. For an actor who's greatest highlights so far include Beverly Hills 90210 and Octopus II, this awesome performance should put him on the map like a megaton bomb.
Other than Guy Pearce's manic turn in Memento, I haven't seen a better performance all year. In fact, I haven't seen this good a performance from a virtual unknown since god knows when.
The rest of the cast is mostly unknown as well, and they all do stellar work. Boti Ann Bliss in particular is excellent in the thankless role of Ted's long-suffering girlfriend, a composite of several of his real life lovers.
The soundtrack to this movie is killer (sorry for the bad pun), with Pete Townshend's Behind Blue Eyes setting the tone early on. The song seems made for this movie.
As I mentioned before, I think this movie is one edit away from being a masterpiece, which brings me to the one reservation I have about the film...the extended coda. It seems Matthew Bright is suffering from an acute case of PSSS (Post Schindler Spielberg Syndrome), an inability to know when to end his great movie. After Ted's execution (oh, was that a spoiler), he cuts to a pretty bad scene where Ted's ex-girlfriend exclaims "Who was that guy? Who was Ted Bundy?", which segues into a really offensive sequence of young kids saying directly to the camera "I'm Ted Bundy!" This apparently is supposed to be a spoof of Spike Lee's "I'm Malcom X!" ending of the same movie (another case of PSSS), but it's just way too glib.
The movie already skates on the razor's edge of offensiveness all throughout, and I think this will tip the scales for most people. The preceding execution of Ted is what gave the whole affair some levity, some sense of payoff for the audience, but the filmmakers smug posturing kills it. All Matthew needs to do is hold on the shot of Ted dead in the electric chair and fade out. Voila! Instant masterpiece! Are you listening Matt? Please do this and you will go down in the books as one of the greats...
Anyway, enough of my rambling. Hope that Hack Valenti doesn't get his mitts on this one, or that someone has the balls to distribute this brilliant piece of work as an NC-17 so you can see it for yourself.
