Simon Killer

United States, France

2012

105 Min

Color

English, French

Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
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PROD Sean Durkin, Josh Mond, Matt Palmieri

SCR Antonio Campos, Brady Corbet, Mati Diop

CAST Brady Corbet, Mati Diop, Constance Rousseau, Lila Salet, Solo, Michaël Abiteboul, Nicolas Ronchi, Alexandra Neil, Etienne Rotha Moeng, Alexandra Neill, Jacques-Andre Coquin, Marc Gaviard

ED Zachary Stuart-Pontier, Antonio Campos, Babak Jalali

PROD DES Nicolas de Boiscuillé

SOUND Micah Bloomberg, Coll Anderson

Sundance (US Dramatic Competition), AFI FEST (New Auteurs), Stockholm (American Independents), Rotterdam (Bright Future), CPH PIX (American Indies)

A recent college graduate goes to Paris after breaking up with his girlfriend of five years. His life should be open-ended and full of promise, but he can’t shake his feelings of loss. Being a stranger in a strange land only aggravates his situation. When he falls in love with a young mysterious prostitute, a fateful journey begins. Though we soon learn that Simon is the one with deeper secrets.

Director/screenwriter Antonio Campos is a powerful, visceral storyteller. He and his team have created the perfect cinematic language to bring this hauntingly dark odyssey to life. The camerawork is exquisite and the sound design rich, engineered to permeate your psyche and make you feel you are walking in Simon’s shadow. Brady Corbet, a gifted Festival alumnus, inhabits the dark soul of Simon in one of his most complicated and fully realized performances. In fact, every role is perfectly cast, and the performances keep the film taut and tense. Simon Killer is a neonoir thriller that creates an unsafe world where the line between truth and dishonesty blurs. –Sundance Film Festival

Antonio Campos

Antonio Campos wrote and directed the critically acclaimed feature film Afterschool, which premiered at Cannes in 2008 and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. That same year, Variety named Campos as one of “10 Directors to Watch at Sundance.” He produced Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Fox Searchlight. A cofounder of Borderline Films with Sean Durkin and Josh Mond, Campos has also produced and directed several award-winning shorts. –Sundance

Keldon

12May13

His debut felt like Haneke lite and this one was a big step away from that. I don't think this film will blow anyone's mind with its originality, but I thought it was paced very well, slowly revealing and hinting at more facets of Simon throughout, keeping me consistently interested. I think a lot of people my age can relate to Simon's initial feeling of placelessness, which helps make this film even more effective.

Kijma

5May13

Explores the relationship between power and sexuality through some strange developmental issues and the director felt like an honest source. The psychosis, the lies, the clanking and the confusion, all expressed through a clever visual structure; breaking its form along with Simon. This is what it feels like to be a human with monstrous behavior and where the film (to me) becomes important.