Post by Dracula on Sept 26, 2021 19:33:53 GMT -5
Pig(7/17/2021)
Pig is a movie that kind of snuck up on me. It didn’t really have much of a festival run, it was from a first time director, and while Nicholas Cage has made a lot of great movies he’s also kind of diluted his brand by making a ton of weird B-movies and you’re never sure whether you’re getting a “real” movie from him or not. Oddly I think Neon’s marketing has largely encouraged the belief that this is one of his odd cult movies than it really is. The film concerns a recluse who lives in a remote cabin in the woods who spends most of his days searching for truffles with a pet pig who can sniff those valuable items out. But when people break into his home and kidnaps the swine he sets out to find the hog, which will entail an adventure through the cut-throat underworld of Portland’s farm-to-table suppliers. The movie is not really the violent revenge film it sounds like and occasionally teases its audience into thinking it will be, which may disappoint some audiences and may lead other audiences to be pleasantly surprised to the point where they perhaps over-rate it a bit. I do hesitate to even mention its more gentle side because on some level I think the film intends to sort of subvert expectations but priming certain audiences what to expect is sort of one of the jobs of a review. First time writer and director Michael Sarnoski brings an impressive grasp of tone in the film and I’m interested to see where he goes from here, though I do think he still has a bit more work to do before I’m going to declare him a major voice. The movie he has given us is solid but I feel like there’s an ingredient missing that I can’t quite put my finger on. Its finale relies on a form of persuasion that’s interesting but which I also didn’t entirely buy and there are a couple of other points I found a bit odd, but overall this is a pretty good indie which will serve as one of the few bits of counter-programing we get in this otherwise confused summer.
***1/2 out of Five
Pig is a movie that kind of snuck up on me. It didn’t really have much of a festival run, it was from a first time director, and while Nicholas Cage has made a lot of great movies he’s also kind of diluted his brand by making a ton of weird B-movies and you’re never sure whether you’re getting a “real” movie from him or not. Oddly I think Neon’s marketing has largely encouraged the belief that this is one of his odd cult movies than it really is. The film concerns a recluse who lives in a remote cabin in the woods who spends most of his days searching for truffles with a pet pig who can sniff those valuable items out. But when people break into his home and kidnaps the swine he sets out to find the hog, which will entail an adventure through the cut-throat underworld of Portland’s farm-to-table suppliers. The movie is not really the violent revenge film it sounds like and occasionally teases its audience into thinking it will be, which may disappoint some audiences and may lead other audiences to be pleasantly surprised to the point where they perhaps over-rate it a bit. I do hesitate to even mention its more gentle side because on some level I think the film intends to sort of subvert expectations but priming certain audiences what to expect is sort of one of the jobs of a review. First time writer and director Michael Sarnoski brings an impressive grasp of tone in the film and I’m interested to see where he goes from here, though I do think he still has a bit more work to do before I’m going to declare him a major voice. The movie he has given us is solid but I feel like there’s an ingredient missing that I can’t quite put my finger on. Its finale relies on a form of persuasion that’s interesting but which I also didn’t entirely buy and there are a couple of other points I found a bit odd, but overall this is a pretty good indie which will serve as one of the few bits of counter-programing we get in this otherwise confused summer.
***1/2 out of Five
