Benjamin Kracun – Cut To The Chase

Written & Directed by: Coralie Fargeat

Cinematography: Benjamin Kracun

Editor: Coralie Fargeat, Jerome Eltabet and Valentin Feron

Cast: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid

A fading celebrity decides to use a black-market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.

Whatever you might have heard about this film you are not entirely ready for where it takes you.

Again this is one of those films that is best to go. Into blind. Which allows for surprises and plenty of discovery.

It has equal parts David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and even a bit of Stanley Kubrick in style, but director Coralie Fargeat manages to make it her own.

As there are symmetrical shots and angles. Colorful production design, and plenty of gore that at first seems artistic until it truly gore for the gusto in the third act. At certain points it feels like science fiction, but more a cruel satire that truly becomes a horror movie. It also feels French and European while taking place on American soil.

it’s amazing, disturbing, uncomfortable, and beautiful. That truly seeks to disturb, disrupt, and challenge. Which for some will make it all the more stronger.

The film offers a full-blown assault on sensibilities and your senses. It manages to build a world while revealing so little and having limited spaces and locations.

It haunts you afterward. Each time you think about the film, you want to go back to see if there is anything you missed. as you want to study the film. It’s that intricate, and pristine

It’s not only the effects that are scary or disgusting but the characters. Dennis Quaid as The lead character’s manager is always his over-the-top stylish suits and seems like he cares. He twists lives in his client’s backs and eats sloppily and disgustingly.

The film is a tale of feminism and the perils of aging for women and how they are treated in the world but especially in Hollywood and the spotlight. This film explores what some are willing to do or forced to do who choose to want to stay in the spotlight. How cruel they are treated for even trying.

It’s also a tale of greed, how there is never enough time, and how quickly it can be stolen or used. When you are younger you always think you have enough time and still want more and are more prone to be jealous that you will even betray your own best interests. How at times a person can lavishly sacrifice just to have the spotlight to themselves even as it does damage to themselves. Not playing by the rules and regretting. Losing sense of oneself.

Self-hatred giving up on yourself for others to prosper. As you feel your life isn’t worth living anymore. Too much work not enough benefits. Needing the adoration to feel worthy.

Demi Moore gives one of them. the best performances of her career. While getting one of the best roles of her recent career. This is the perfect movie for her to make a comeback. Even as critically as most of the characters treat her. She still looks extraordinarily beautiful. The horror is that for so many years Ms. Moore has been the model for what was seen as perfect and beautiful that many women aspired to be like or look like and now here she is not considered good enough.

It also offered her the most range in a role. Yet it also, feels familiar or like a reality she might be facing only magnified. As the film shows how aging especially for women is seen as a horror in society and how many of them have resorted to some kind of substance be it surgery, fillers, creams or ointments to try to keep their youth or look youthful. Even as it becomes a violence against themselves. Taking themselves down the. Face the reality they find themselves in. Trying to reach or keep an idealized version of themselves and literally buying into it

At certain points, it feels like a TALES FROM THE CRYPT movie. Which only reminds the audience of Demi Moore’s appearance on that show in an episode. By the end, it also reminds the audience of another production that she was part of the animated Disney film THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME.

You could also throw in some RE-ANIMATOR. As well as the story THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY. As well as THE GAME, DEATH BECOMES HER, THE TOXIC AVENGER, FIGHT CLUB, and SECONDS. With those ingredients, she used them to make something piercingly original

It even tackles eating disorders. As when she can’t really punish or fight her double. She strikes back the only way she knows how overeating bad food. as she robs her of her youth.

Vanity destroying yourself to give yourself more time. Almost like an addiction the same as a vampire uses blood to survive and stay young or at least keep up appearances. Usually preying on the young here it is reversed.

As the younger self has all the promises or is given promises of course she becomes more selfish hoping to live just a bit longer.

This film by the end becomes a fable of addiction to the limelight of fame and attention and how lonely it can become once it begins to fade. Even though you have a following how quickly they can abandon you and if you are never prepared for your eventual downfall. You have truly nothing left. How these rules seem to apply mostly unfortunately to women. Hollywood is a fickle mistress.

Grade: A

Written & Directed: Emerald Fennell
Cinematography: Benjamin Kracun
Editor: Frederic Thoraval

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Adam Brody, Sam Richardson, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverene Cox, Max Greenfield, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Alison Brie, Connie Britton, Molly Shannon, Loren Paul, Christopher Lowell, Steve Monroe

A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who crossed her path.

The film seeks to try to make its points over and over again that feel like overkill and preaching to a certain extent.

The film manages to surprise the audience using exploitation expectations though giving something else entirely.

This film would have worked fine enough if it was what one was expecting a revenge tale against so-called nice guys and bad guys alike.

Though the film addresses more and it tries to be a film that inspires discussion and becomes more of a think piece than necessarily Just a film. This is fine as long as it offers more arguments and evidence for what it seems to want to spark conversations.

Some aspects are left vague as we never really See what happens once she is down with her encounters with these men and are never really told what happens after. Is it just confrontation as a kind of exposing and warning to them? Does she do anything violent to them and if the just warning does she really Get revenge and does she have a backup security measure if these guys decide to get violent?

Even with her little notebook which she seems to make markings in of another case or victim. What Is it all for?

Not to mention afterwards though it seems to happen around the same town and area. It never comes back to her until the film needs it to, which comes off as a bit too convenient.

The film offers interesting twists but while there is a certain level of guilt. We still might wonder why she takes on this mission.

Her revenge schemes are thought out, cruel, and make their points. Even though most men are made out to be villains throughout there are some women who are just as guilty in their ambivalence.

The film seems to make a point against nice guys being as bad or worse than predators. As they see themselves above it all and defend or support women. Though deep down they hold the same attitudes as those predators and believe because of their other good deeds that they are somehow owed love or a woman. Even as these nice guys already seem kind of predatory or at least douchey beforehand.

Especially by casting actors, we have seen as the nice guy nerdish characters in other films and television shows. Who here makes cameos or has a scene or two Then disappear. That truly only one character actually does surprise me.

This also gives the film a whiff of superiority as it comes off more about issues than character. Which for some might feel for some

Preachy and while a film about the issues it presents are welcome. The film isn’t as good to back it up, Or be a good example.

Nice to see comedian Bo Burnham Giving more of a meaty supporting role.

This is a revenge tale that takes comfort in being in and having the rules but acts like it is better than them. When it actually might be a little smarter and more discreet in its handling And treatment of the Material.

Which helps the film not be as exploitative. As the character and scenes aren’t made erotic or sexualized. It comes off as more of a new normal get more through a feminine gaze. Though strangely in its set-up and backgrounds it feels almost like it’s taking place on a kind of dreamland as it is real but feels artificial, more pretty than anything.

The design of the film is remarkable and quite brightly colored to offset the dark behaviors and characters.

The film’s strength is more in its surprising and unpredictable third act.

This is also a movie that loses some points due to hype. As ever since hearing about the film before it Came out wanted to see it and heard nothing but good things to the point of it’s Multiple academy award nominations And win for best original screenplay. But not after finally seeing it. That hype hurt the film in my eyes.

Even when trying to put that aside others might have Been lucky to Discover it to admire it for what it is. (The best way To see any film) But coming into the film with preconceived thoughts. It doesn’t live up to the prose exactly. As it isn’t horrible but not as good as expected though better than average.

It feels like a lifetime movie due to the can be anywhere, Polished no violence but always a threat of it and actions mostly Done on theory with big histrionics and a cast more known for appearances on television.

The film even introduces an idea that might even work as a sequel

GRADE: B-

Tag: Benjamin Kracun

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