by Josh Sewell
The Dead Don’t Hurt
(Rated R for violence, some sexuality and language. Opens in select theaters on May 31.)
It has been a long time since Westerns were a Hollywood staple. Over the last several decades, however, countless filmmakers have used the genre’s well-known tropes to explore more complex ideas and narratives. John Ford’s The Searchers might be the most famous example, but other films like Unforgiven, Tombstone, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Django Unchained prove there are still plenty of corners in the American West left to explore.
Viggo Mortensen is the latest filmmaker to put his stamp on the genre with The Dead Don’t Hurt, a story of star-crossed lovers on the American frontier in the 1860s. He writes, directs, stars and even composes the music for this methodically paced, emotionally rich drama.
He plays Holger Olsen, a Danish immigrant who falls in love with the fiercely independent Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) as she grows tired of San Francisco’s aristocratic society. Sparks fly, so she eventually agrees to travel to his home in the small town of Elk Flats, Nevada. When the Civil War breaks out and Olsen decides to fight for the Union, Vivienne is left to fend for herself in a corrupt land where she catches the eye of a powerful rancher’s (Garrett Dillahunt) unhinged son (Solly McLeod).
Those looking for a typical action-packed tale of gunfights and revenge should know going in that Mortensen has something different in mind. The Dead Don’t Hurt is much more interested in how immigrants adjust to the American frontier, especially when their live-and-let-live values don’t mesh with the ruthless attitudes of those who found success in the West.
At 129 minutes, the film will likely test the patience of those with short attention spans. However, Mortensen instills his tale with strong performances from everyone involved (especially an underutilized W. Earl Brown), while cinematographer Marcel Zyskind captures the overlooked beauty of seemingly barren landscapes. Also, the relationship at the center of the narrative is both tender and realistic, leading to some powerful moments of intimacy, compromise and understanding rather than emotionally manipulative melodrama.
Grade: B
In a Violent Nature
(Not rated, contains graphic violence, gore and language. Opens in select theaters on May 31.)
The horror genre is one of my blind spots (mostly because I’m a big wuss), so keep that in mind when I say Chris Nash’s new slasher In a Violent Nature is easily one of the goriest movies I’ve ever seen. I watched most of it alternating between a grimace and slack-jawed astonishment at how far the writer-director was willing to go in the service of terrifying and grossing out viewers.
The premise is standard slasher fare: when someone removes a locket from a creepy shrine in the middle of the woods, the rotting corpse of Johnny (Ry Barrett) is resurrected. Intent on retrieving his stolen property, he tracks down the group of vacationing teens (Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Liam Leone, Charlotte Creaghan, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Sam Roulston and Alexander Oliver) responsible and proceeds to slaughter them one by one.
Despite clearly paying homage to genre predecessors like Friday the 13th, what makes Nash’s In a Violent Nature noteworthy is in the execution – no pun intended. Almost the entire film is from Johnny’s perspective (although not his POV), so a lot of it is just him marching relentlessly through the forest as he stalks his victims. These long stretches, often shot in a single take followed by sudden jump cuts to mark the passage of time, lull viewers into a false sense of complacency, so when the graphic violence does happen it’s somehow even more disturbing.
Not only are Johnny’s attacks brutal, they’re also wildly creative. Examples would spoil the bleak surprises, but I’m sure they’ll help word-of-mouth spread like crazy. Weirdly enough, the over-the-top nature of the violence ended up making the movie’s most understated kill the most unsettling – to me, at least.
Maybe that means I’m a proponent of “less is more,” because the monster’s final kill is so ridiculously extreme, and goes on for so long, that it ended up making me laugh out loud rather than cower in fright. As a result, the otherwise respectable entry in the slasher genre ultimately feels a bit anticlimactic.
Grade: B-
(Rated R for violence, some sexuality and language. Opens in select theaters on May 31.)
It has been a long time since Westerns were a Hollywood staple. Over the last several decades, however, countless filmmakers have used the genre’s well-known tropes to explore more complex ideas and narratives. John Ford’s The Searchers might be the most famous example, but other films like Unforgiven, Tombstone, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Django Unchained prove there are still plenty of corners in the American West left to explore.
Viggo Mortensen is the latest filmmaker to put his stamp on the genre with The Dead Don’t Hurt, a story of star-crossed lovers on the American frontier in the 1860s. He writes, directs, stars and even composes the music for this methodically paced, emotionally rich drama.
He plays Holger Olsen, a Danish immigrant who falls in love with the fiercely independent Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) as she grows tired of San Francisco’s aristocratic society. Sparks fly, so she eventually agrees to travel to his home in the small town of Elk Flats, Nevada. When the Civil War breaks out and Olsen decides to fight for the Union, Vivienne is left to fend for herself in a corrupt land where she catches the eye of a powerful rancher’s (Garrett Dillahunt) unhinged son (Solly McLeod).
Those looking for a typical action-packed tale of gunfights and revenge should know going in that Mortensen has something different in mind. The Dead Don’t Hurt is much more interested in how immigrants adjust to the American frontier, especially when their live-and-let-live values don’t mesh with the ruthless attitudes of those who found success in the West.
At 129 minutes, the film will likely test the patience of those with short attention spans. However, Mortensen instills his tale with strong performances from everyone involved (especially an underutilized W. Earl Brown), while cinematographer Marcel Zyskind captures the overlooked beauty of seemingly barren landscapes. Also, the relationship at the center of the narrative is both tender and realistic, leading to some powerful moments of intimacy, compromise and understanding rather than emotionally manipulative melodrama.
Grade: B
(Not rated, contains graphic violence, gore and language. Opens in select theaters on May 31.)
The horror genre is one of my blind spots (mostly because I’m a big wuss), so keep that in mind when I say Chris Nash’s new slasher In a Violent Nature is easily one of the goriest movies I’ve ever seen. I watched most of it alternating between a grimace and slack-jawed astonishment at how far the writer-director was willing to go in the service of terrifying and grossing out viewers.
The premise is standard slasher fare: when someone removes a locket from a creepy shrine in the middle of the woods, the rotting corpse of Johnny (Ry Barrett) is resurrected. Intent on retrieving his stolen property, he tracks down the group of vacationing teens (Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Liam Leone, Charlotte Creaghan, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Sam Roulston and Alexander Oliver) responsible and proceeds to slaughter them one by one.
Despite clearly paying homage to genre predecessors like Friday the 13th, what makes Nash’s In a Violent Nature noteworthy is in the execution – no pun intended. Almost the entire film is from Johnny’s perspective (although not his POV), so a lot of it is just him marching relentlessly through the forest as he stalks his victims. These long stretches, often shot in a single take followed by sudden jump cuts to mark the passage of time, lull viewers into a false sense of complacency, so when the graphic violence does happen it’s somehow even more disturbing.
Not only are Johnny’s attacks brutal, they’re also wildly creative. Examples would spoil the bleak surprises, but I’m sure they’ll help word-of-mouth spread like crazy. Weirdly enough, the over-the-top nature of the violence ended up making the movie’s most understated kill the most unsettling – to me, at least.
Maybe that means I’m a proponent of “less is more,” because the monster’s final kill is so ridiculously extreme, and goes on for so long, that it ended up making me laugh out loud rather than cower in fright. As a result, the otherwise respectable entry in the slasher genre ultimately feels a bit anticlimactic.
Grade: B-
Reach out to Josh Sewell at joshsewell81@gmail.com
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