Fantastic Fest - Bullhead (Belgium)

If I haven't explicitly said, though I think I have, it should be obvious to readers of this blog how emotionally involved I get when I watch some films. For me that's kind of the point. Not all films are told from an emotional perspective, and that's fine, I like those films too (sometimes). But being open and allowing myself to be effected by the story being told is what drives my love of film. Melancholia hypnotized the other day. The most recent film I saw shattered me.



The trailer does not do the film justice at all. It comes across as some kind of mafia crime thriller, and it does have those elements. But those elements are the setting in which the bigger story takes place... the story that is only hinted at in the trailer. It's about Jacky, a man who is completely trapped by his circumstances (the actor is AMAZING, btw). He's someone that might have turned out to be a good man in the end had this one thing not happened to him. But on the other hand, if this thing hadn't happened to him he might have turned out to be just like everyone else around him, and those people aren't that great. The fact is, this thing happened and he is who he is and he cannot escape it. The choices he makes because of it are excruciating but it makes sense that he makes them.

In case any of my readers decide to watch this (and you really really should) I don't want to give anything away. I don't want you to miss out on the ride, as it were. I was in quite a state at the end of the movie. Tears that came without any warning at all and couldn't be stopped (at least not as soon as I would have liked). I couldn't stick around for the Q&A with the writer/director afterwards, I was already late for cheer practice (more on this later), but I did hug him and tell him how much I loved it (through my sniffles) as I was leaving the theater. Hopefully I'll run into him today and get to ask him the questions I want to ask him. He does owe me a drink after all and is one of the coolest people I've met at the festival (everyone is pretty cool so that is saying something).



This film is Belgium's submission to the Oscars. Needless to say, I hope it gets nominated. It's also Michael's first film. I'm in awe. And maybe someday soon I'll be friends with an Oscar nominee. How cool would that be?