Artsy or Awful?

I can't help it. I like seeing films even though I've read/heard bad things about them. I have to see it for myself in order to give a proper opinion, especially if its from one of the artsy directors I like or know.

With that in mind, I watched Lars Von Trier's Antichrist tonight. It was absolutely ridiculous. There was shot of a thrusting penis within the first five minutes of the film. Doesn't that qualify as pornography? It was not a flaccid penis.

It was slow going from the beginning, with or without Willem Dafoe's clenching butt. The film was tolerable until the characters played by Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg head to the woods to confront her "fears." He's her therapist husband, their kid fell out of a window, she flushes her meds down the toilet, and he takes her to the remote cabin that she keeps having nightmares about.

While out in the secluded forest, we see what looked like a deer pooping out a newborn deer: it runs around with this bloody thing hanging out of its butt. There's also a bird eating another baby bird that feel out of a tree.

It's slower going in the forest until the wife snaps and starts inflicting pain on her husband and herself. She knocks him out by throwing a block on his privates. She drills a hole in his leg and attaches some kind of circular weight to it. She, um, man-handles his man stick which gushes blood instead of semen (which makes a little sense since she did just crush his man parts). She mutilates her lady parts with scissors.

A deer, a fox and a big bird enter their cabin at some point.

There was no point.

Lars von Trier only makes films about tortured women. They hate themselves. They inflict pain upon themselves. Antichrist was his most literal exploration of this theme.

No wonder people booed the movie in Cannes: it was awful, not art.

time for a stiff drink

Just poured myself a still drink. Feeling anxious and frustrated. Saturdays are my longest work days. I get in at 8:30am and work til 4:30. Then I'm on call the rest of the night. It's dark by 5 so I wasn't able to squeeze in a run. There's a story coming in tonight for work so I have to dutifully be near the computer.

Also frustrated that they won't switch me to a Mon-Fri schedule. We have a major project launching Tuesday morning that still needs lots of work but I can't help with it anymore. Have to pass it on to already overworked people midstream. I would be much more effective on Monday than I am on Saturday.