The Killer Inside Me (Michael Winterbottom, 2010)

[Tribe]

Is it any good....?

January 25, 2010
Sundance Audience Shaken By Brutal "Killer"

By REUTERS
Filed at 11:58 p.m. ET

PARK CITY, Utah (Hollywood Reporter) - Let's get this out of the way up front: In Michael Winterbottom's "The Killer Inside Me," Jessica Alba is pulverized, fist to face, fist to face, fist to poor pretty face, by Casey Affleck for a good three minutes or so. Until her eyes are swollen shut and part of her face has been smashed away, exposing her jaw. What one character later describes as "hamburger," "stewed meat."

It's ultra-real, excruciating to watch and, in some viewers' minds, inexcusable.

When Affleck's sociopathic deputy sheriff, Lou Ford, does something similar to Kate Hudson's character later in the nihilistic noir, Winterbottom and crew lost even more of the audience. Not that they walked out of Sunday's premiere screening, mind you. They waited until the moment the lights came up for a Q&A with the filmmakers, and Winterbottom started fielding vehement criticism about the violence toward women.

First question: "Disgusting!" yelled a woman as she got up and stormed up the aisle.

Winterbottom, after a long pause: "Next question?"

Whether the film, a period noir about a West Texas deputy sheriff with dangerous sexual issues adapted from Jim Thompson's classic 1952 novel, has any theatrical prospects turns out to be less interesting than the perennial debate the film sparks about art vs. exploitation when it comes to violence in cinema.

Does the violence work in the context of a deeper exploration of a character's psyche, or that of society as a whole? Or is it displayed in a vacuum without any redeeming context to provide meaning to a viewer other than an indictment of their being willing to sit through it in the first place?

Try the latter. A wildly improbable and over-the-top finale pushes the film into something more like black comedy, which in turn undercuts the purported realism of the violence earlier in the movie.

Audience members repeatedly prodded Winterbottom to provide some greater meaning or backstory that would help them accept what they had just suffered through. The director protested that, as in Thompson's novel, he wanted to explore the noir theme of "a sense of pleasure in the violence. The violence should be shocking."

Mission accomplished.

[ellipsis7]

The Guardian on the same...

[MyNameCriterionForum]

I like Casey Affleck, but the person I always pictured in the lead was Joe Bob Briggs, honestly.

[mfunk9786]

So I take it this hasn't been picked up for distribution yet? Personally, I can't wait to see it.

[MyNameCriterionForum]

Not to crap all over this film, but I've hated everything Winterbottom has made, and love Jim Thompson (this being my favorite of his novels) so I'm skeptical at best. And I can't think of a film adaptation of Thompson topping Coup de Torchon or Foley's After Dark, My Sweet (I hated The Grifters).

[ezmbmh]

And I can't think of a film adaptation of Thompson topping Coup de Torchon or Foley's After Dark, My Sweet (I hated The Grifters).

Agree with you about Coup and After Dark; what did you hate about Grifters?

[domino harvey]

If only Affleck sewed Alba's face to someone's ass after the abuse, then IFC would have picked up the distribution

[Adam]

Sounds like he saw Irreversible just before writing the script.

[foliagecop]

I've hated everything Winterbottom has made.

Seriously? Like ... everything?

[mfunk9786]

Well, he makes a killer pot roast.

[Anhedionisiac]

Actually, I agree with mfunk9786 with the reservation that I wouldn't say hated per se, more like "strongly disliked yet respected his right to keep churning out films I didn't go ga-ga for".
Since The Killer Inside Me's script's is pretty decent, I thought maybe this'd be a new turn.
But my interest dropped all the way to China as soon as I saw the trailer. Blandest direction of the year so far.

[tavernier]

But my interest dropped all the way to China as soon as I saw the trailer. Blandest direction of the year so far.

Just from the trailer you can tell the directing sucks?

[Anhedionisiac]

Just from the trailer you can tell the directing sucks?

A 5-minute extended promo trailer that shows several key scenes. Yes. Yes, coupled with the fact I've seen most of Winterbottom films and read the script, the trailer lets me have a certain mental picture of what it'll be like and, unfortunately, I can tell I won't like it. Fair enough?

[tavernier]

Just from the trailer you can tell the directing sucks?

A 5-minute extended promo trailer that shows several key scenes. Yes. Yes, coupled with the fact I've seen most of Winterbottom films and read the script, the trailer lets me have a certain mental picture of what it'll be like and, unfortunately, I can tell I won't like it. Fair enough?

No.

[MyNameCriterionForum]

And I can't think of a film adaptation of Thompson topping Coup de Torchon or Foley's After Dark, My Sweet (I hated The Grifters).

Agree with you about Coup and After Dark; what did you hate about Grifters?

Not a fan of Frears at all. I felt the film was too smug, too glib...

[MyNameCriterionForum]

I've hated everything Winterbottom has made.

Seriously? Like ... everything?

I confess to a little bit of hyperbole here -- I have yet to see Code 46 or 24 Hour Party People. But everything else? Dull, trite, predictable. 9 Songs deserves mention as the single worst film of the decade, save maybe that Miranda July monstrosity.

I'm not sure who should be directing Jim Thompson adaptations... Carl Franklin? John Dahl? Neil Labute? Kathryn Bigelow?

[dad1153]

IFC picks up the rights to "Killer." Sounds like it'll be a great double-bill with Von Trier's "Antichrist" on the IFC Channel a few years down the road. :-"

[domino harvey]

Apparently I must've accidentally spoiled the ending

[ianungstad]

Not surprised. They bought Winterbottom's other Sundance entry, Shock Doctrine a few weeks prior to the festival as part of their Sundance Selects line. Must be some pretty good money in shock cinema. Between this and Enter the Void, Life During Wartime and Antichrist and that Human Centipede movie, it looks like they picked up every NC-17ish indy that toured the festival circuit over the last year.

Somehow I think Criterion will be passing on most of these.

[FerdinandGriffon]

The Shock Doctrine is a documentary based on Naomi Klein's book, it has nothing to do with "shock" cinema. While I do find the prospect of things like Human Centipede getting fairly widespread distribution fairly repulsive, count me amongst those looking forward to Winterbottom's film. He's a reliably inconsistent director, but when he hits the target, as he did with Tristram Shandy, I think he's definitely up there with the best of British filmmakers working today. And frankly, I don't see how anyone could rule out The Killer Inside Me outright after those gorgeous early stills we were treated to earlier in the thread.

[Finch]

The film's provoked further boos and walkouts in Berlin:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/feb ... olent-film" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Finch]

Michael Winterbottom interviewed

[jojo]

While I can understand the "work speaks for itself" mentality of some filmmakers, it's pretty hard to believe that Winterbottom didn't expect this reaction from the start--it almost seems like he's puzzled by it. You have to be able to speak about these things in some amount of detail, because critics can be pretty unforgiving if you don't articulate something specific in response to these kind of charges. Or maybe he's got some kind of master plan or something, I dunno...

[Grand Illusion]

I'm afraid to see this because Road to Guantanamo was so off-the-mark that it almost converted me into being pro-torture.

[flyonthewall2983]

Trailer