*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Of course not all movies are made just to entertain and I'm glad about that. Movies can often be something provoking and a true experience, when it's handling an original and intriguing concept such as this movie does.
This movie might sound like a one note movie about a sex addict, fulfilling his needs, day in day out, like a real junkie, getting his daily fix. But there is of course more depth to it all. Its premise perhaps makes it sound like this is a very black and white movie concerning sexual morals and themes but the movie actually more so is being placed in a very gray area. The main character is not completely despicable and also not completely devoid of any human emotions and the capability to care for women, no matter how poorly he treats some of them, just for his own needs. He can still tell good from evil but that doesn't hold him back from doing some bad stuff.
It's a movie that shows that sex can truly turn into something addictive and that this ain't anything hot or pretty. It's a pretty nasty movie, that can also get quite graphic at times with its sex and nudity and not in a very hot kind of way. The movie could had been about any sort of addiction really and I feel the movie would had probably still had been the same, with perhaps as a difference that it would had made less impact, since this movie is treating a not so much handled or talked about subject.
And still, the movie would had not been as great if it wasn't for a couple of other things as well. First of all its directing. It had a great directing approach, which felt more indie-filmmaking like but totally not in a pretentious sort of way. And with saying it feels like an Indie film, I don't mean to say it's a cheap and simplistic movie visually. On the contrary quite really. Obviously lots of time and effort went into the setup of this movie, with its lighting and camera handling. Visually it's a really great movie to look at, that is slowly and subtly being shot and told by director Steve McQueen.
But also the acting is great. This is not an easy and ordinary role to play of course but Michael Fassbender does a very convincing job at capturing the disgusting and despicable sides or his characters but at the same time keeping him human and still a character you could feel and care for, for its entire duration.
But you may want to ask yourself at the end what exactly the conclusion of the movie was and what exactly it was trying to say. I'm not talking about a message or anything of that sort but more what the entire point and purpose of this movie was. It's because the ending is not entirely satisfying. The movie just simply ends, while you are wondering what has changed exactly. Or perhaps this simply was just the point of the movie. But still, I saw this as a downside it did prevented me from giving it an higher rating, which the rest of the movie probably does really still deserve.
Still an unique and powerful movie, that is definitely worth checking out, if you feel you could take and handle its main subject.
7/10
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