The definition of trying way too hard. It’s very desperate to get a reaction out of you, and while it succeeded, it definitely wasn’t earned. Picture the shock value and excess of _Requiem for a Dream_ or _Pusher_, except sucky and cheap. Picture the storytelling format of _Memento_, except its pointless to the story. Picture the long takes you often find in the films from Cuaron, Scorsese or Inarritu, except with execution that leaves a lot to be desired. The first third straight up looks like trash, it’s not even defensible as interesting, artistic handheld. If anything, it looks like a one take version of those bad shaky cam action movies that were popular in the 2000s. It’s mildly effective as a mood piece, sure, but that’s where the praise ends as far as I’m concerned. I’m convinced the violence and disturbing content will be too challenging for some people, but I don’t have much of a problem with that in concept. I do, however, have a problem with it being mostly empty and vapid; the characters are uninteresting, the plot’s pretty barebones, nor is the acting all that impressive. There’s some interesting subtext (you can see it as [spoiler] a statement against unchecked male lust and the pointlessness of revenge[/spoiler]), but there are still so many films that comment on these topics in a more interesting way and without the edgelord tendencies.

3.5/10