The Bad Batch (2016) by Ana Lily Amirpour

[cranefly]

A sleeper of a movie, considerably underrated to my mind.

Keanu Reeves has a small role, central but not all that notable.  Suki Waterhouse is the real star, and she's impressive.  Also impressive is the director, Ana Lily Amirpour (known for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, which I need to track down and watch), who milks a limited budget for all its worth.  Some of the striking special effects are, unbelievably, done in camera.  And she "borrows" existing colorful settings, replete with their natural denizens, to further enrich the scenes.  As for her camerawork, it's mesmerizing.

If you're thinking of watching this, don't read anything more about it beforehand.  There's one more notable actor aboard who I didn't recognize until the final credits.

A gritty, brutal tale of survival, not for the faint of heart, but with a haunting beauty about it.

[Drunk Monk]

WTH? This popped up on my Netflix queue and I was like hmmm, Keanu? Momoa? Carrey? I should check it out. 

It’s a brutal film - violent, arid, desolate, dirty, post-apocalyptic, and cannibalistic. It kept hinting at a political metaphor about poverty or illegal aliens or Texas or cults or something, but I couldn’t grok it. It didn’t work for me. I couldn’t settle into its graphic representations and missed its point entirely.

Carrey was unrecognizable, to his credit. Keanu was cool - a good cameo from him even though his character felt underdeveloped. Momoa never wore a shirt. Why would he for this? Suki’s arm effect was convincing. 

At one point, I was reminded of when a certain DOOM brother (who will remain unarmed unless he puts himself) complainer that too much amputee porn was cut off just below the knee implying that the knee was just folded back. I’m not even sure how the conversation got there but it left me with regrets.

At another point, the Keanu rave, I started thinking how it reminded me of several late night tweaked sound systems that I’ve attended at festivals. You get a lot of weird thoughts at those and it occurred to me that this might just all be a story conceived at such a gathering (the lsd was a major tell). Take it from ol’ dm - only a select few can pull a Hunter S. Thompson and write well when high. Writing in that state can be useful but not for a whole damn movie. I did enjoy the lysergic twist, even if it was a bit cliche.

No sword fights. I’d only DOOM recommend this to cf (who’s already seen it obvs) & Ed (who hardly comes round here no mo).

[cranefly]

I recall that this movie was brutal.  But I'm thinking it pales in comparison to some of Greg's recent posts on the Cats of Doom thread.

The amputated arm and leg, which you said were very convincing (and I agree), were done with in-camera effects.  Not post.  I still struggle to comprehend this.

BTW, I think the political incorrectness of this movie [SPOILER ALERT! How could the protagonist team up with a cannibalistic murderer to survive? END SPOILER] hurt Ana Amirpour's career.  Some critics scolded her about it.  But I applaud her for being so realistic about what you do in hard times.  There's not a lot of options, you know.  Sometimes you just gotta eat an arm or a leg.

[Drunk Monk]

The amputated arm and leg, which you said were very convincing (and I agree), were done with in-camera effects.  Not post.  I still struggle to comprehend this.

I too, struggle with this. 

To its credit, this won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and was up for the coveted Golden Lion.