Admittedly, more of this film reminds me of other movies than anything. The premise reminds me of Being There, the reveal of Videodrome, some of the ways sound were used was a lot like in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, the closing titles were reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange, the intertitles of Un Chien Andalou, the “based on a true story” of Fargo… the ironic use of music in many contexts, though the main theme is used in Don Hertzfeldt’s Rejected cartoons (of similar absurdist fun to this film) and I’m sure he used the other song as well (forgive my ignorance of classical music but though I am very familiar with the tracks, I do not know what they are called).

But hey! If Tarantino is given credit for cutting and pasting other movies together into his own unique vision, then there’s nothing wrong here. Besides, the directors Niko and Alex manage some pretty nifty blocking, using a 360 degree spin in two sequences to encompass a full range of action in a single room and generally keeping things concise with claustrophobic set design and beautiful high angle shots. Meanwhile, the humor keeps you going even if, in my opinion, the seriousness of the themes is somewhat lacking.

A decent movie when it comes down to it, in this case it’s a little too metacinematic, I believe the surreality and humor would have played off better, as well as the themes, if everything did not feel so referential to something else and the intertitles did not feel like a performance directly dedicated to the viewer.

—PolarisDiB