"Since Jesse Armstrong's Succession and Emerald Fennell's Saltburn, wealthy, spoilt, dysfunctional siblings are the new rock'n'roll, and now here is a film from Greek screenwriter Efthimis Filippou (co-author of Yorgos Lanthimos's Alps and Dogtooth) and directed by Karim Ainouz. It is a weird-wave contrivance concerning a messed-up US plutocrat clan living in Spain, freely remade from Marco Bellocchio's 1965 film Fists in the Pocket."
"Their bizarre and cartoony secrets, involving sex abuse, manipulation and self-harm, are satirically symptomatic of capitalism and the patriarchy, and how the rich, however entrepreneurial and smart, create a next-gen class of useless drones, on whose behalf all this wealth has supposedly been accumulated. I have to admit to finding it heavy-handed and clumsy more often than not, although there are some good performances, notably from Jamie Bell and Elle Fanning."
"A strange extended family lives in a luxurious modernist house; the father (Tracy Letts) is a blind widower haunted by the memories of his late wife (Pamela Anderson) who was savaged by wolves in a nearby forest. His grownup children, infantilised by wealth, all live there: highly strung Robert (Lukas Gage) has epilepsy, and is entrusted with supervising his father's horse riding; Anna (Riley Keough) is a talentless singer-songwriter; and Ed (Callum Turner) is a would-be fashionista."
A weird-wave remake sets a dysfunctional US plutocrat clan in Spain, updating Marco Bellocchio's Fists in the Pocket. A blind widower father haunted by his late wife's savage death presides over infantilised adult children: epileptic Robert, talentless singer Anna, fashion-obsessed Ed, and Jack, who wants to leave with girlfriend Martha. The family's bizarre, cartoony secrets—sexual abuse, manipulation, self-harm—are presented as satirical symptoms of capitalism and patriarchy that create purposeless heirs. The film contains striking performances from Jamie Bell and Elle Fanning but often feels heavy-handed and clumsy despite notable moments.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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