Khook (2018)

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muzzlehatch
Easily one of the weirdest and most unlikely Iranian films I've ever seen, with the most graphic violence I've ever seen from this cinema (admittedly I haven't seen many of their war films), and a wild hallucinatory plot that talks quite openly about issues like adultery (not presented in a particularly negative light) and censorship. It's a horror-comedy about a film director, Hasan (Hasan Majuni) who is having all sorts of problems - his mother is crazy and threatens people with an antique shotgun, his wife doesn't listen to him, his girlfriend (Leila Hatami) might be getting involved personally and professionally with another man, he's not able to direct films because of a ban and has to subsist on making musical bug-spray commercials (the two full-length musical numbers are amazing) and worst of all a serial killer is running around murdering film directors, but he's apparently not important enough to be a potential victim. Filmed in 'scope with absolutely eye-popping color - there's a scene where most of the screen goes orange that was so bright I had to close my eyes for a second - this goes from mad to madder and also manages to develop a sense of tragedy and doom along the way, before a wild if perhaps somewhat slack ending. I didn't absolutely love this but it was definitely not quite like anything else I've seen - and that's not just from Iranian cinema. This ought to make it to some of those weird or cult movie lists if there's any justice. 5 years ago