There have been better, more important movies made in the last few years, but in terms of pure, unfiltered intensity, nothing beats Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room. Even after a full year of buzz from Cannes and Toronto, the punk rock grindhouse thriller hit me like a ton of bricks, stunning me with its raw power and visceral, go-for-broke insanity. I'm far from an expert when it comes to the midnight movie genre, but the sweaty, nail-biting tension and unflinching gruesomeness of Saulnier's shocking Nazis vs. Punks standoff made me a bloodthirsty fan. So when I started hearing comparisons between Green Room and S. Craig Zahler's Brawl in Cell Block 99, this new thriller immediately had my attention. Critics had been raving about Zahler's Bone Tomahawk for years (still haven't seen it), and early word on the street was that he had made something straight-up jaw-dropping with Brawl. So it's safe to say that I was fully ready for a thrilling, bone-crunching bit of madness.
Miraculously, I ended up hating Brawl in Cell Block 99. This wasn't just a movie that I didn't like or found disappointing- I had a fundamental, almost instinctual reaction of disgust to it. I know I'm in the total minority here, and maybe I'm looking at this film in the wrong way. Maybe the Green Room comparison was too prominent in my mind, and I couldn't appreciate the different movie that Zahler had made. As I said, I'm not an expert on the exploitation or midnight genres. Brawl in Cell Block 99 is undoubtedly impressive from a filmmaking standpoint, as Zahler is clearly doing something strange and interesting. And yeah, Vince Vaughn sells his terrifying role with appropriate macho ease. But ultimately, I found myself alternating between feeling bored and repulsed- this is a bland mess of self-seriousness lacking in emotion and humanity. I love a good gory thrill ride, but this one rubbed me in all the wrong ways.
Bradley Thomas (Vaughn) is a polite, distinctly Southern former drug dealer who's trying to go straight by working in a garage. But after being laid off and learning that his wife Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) has been having an affair, Bradley decides that it's time for a restart. After a burst of rage, Bradley and Jennifer agree to try to have a child once again, and he determines that it's time to go back to drug dealing. After a deal goes wrong 18 months later, Bradley finds himself facing 7 years in prison, time with his wife and daughter that he will never get back. Refusing to rat on his employer or fellow dealers, Bradley finds himself locked up. But when a mysterious man (Udo Kier) comes to prison with a terrifying threat against his wife and unborn daughter, Bradley will have to fight his way to Redleaf prison, the maximum security facility that houses the terrifying Cell Block 99.
Look, I obviously have nothing against cinematic violence. I opened this review by describing my adoration for a film in which a man's stomach is sliced open and killer dogs maul people to death- and that's only the start of it. But to me, on-screen violence has to have a purpose, either for the narrative or for the emotion that the filmmaker is trying to generate. The violence has to have a pulse- it has to make you feel something. This is why something like Green Room works for me, as Jeremy Saulnier is clearly trying to elicit a palpable feeling of sheer terror from the audience. Even Gareth Evans' Raid movies work on a pure visceral level, with the action scenes operating to give the film a kind of propulsive intensity. I say all of this to clarify why I found the violence in Brawl in Cell Block 99 so abhorrent- it exists for its own sake. It has no effect on the characters (except the ones who die), and I can't imagine it'll have much of an impact on the audience beyond the requisite cringes. This is a movie where heads are stomped in and arms break in half, and pretty much nobody on screen has a reaction. Maybe I've grown numb (although I'd say that the hand scene in Gerald's Game is evidence to the contrary), but I found myself unaffected by the disturbingly empty displays of violence in this film.
Zahler's uncomfortably soulless approach is omnipresent in this film. He has made something that feels kind of alien and other-worldly, which is interesting in a way. But any attempts at emotion (such as the final five minutes or so) feel profoundly fake, and each and every character speaks like a robot programmed to talk in hard-boiled prose. It's not hard to see the crime exploitation style that Zahler is trying to imitate here, but it comes at the detriment of the film. After a fast start that's truly engaging in a way I didn't expect, Zahler sucks the humanity out of the film. Every scene feels like the start of a macho stand-off between two equally uninteresting characters, two guys who just want to beat each other's heads in for the sake of it. Vince Vaughn plays Bradley Thomas perfectly in line with Zahler's style, and he's fearsome, intimidating, and surprising. He's the best thing in the movie, and in a film that better used his talents, I would say that it's one of the finest performances of the year. But in Brawl, Vaughn is left with schlock that forces him to keep a straight face and play a remorseless killing machine. When Zahler and Vaughn stretch to make Bradley empathetic, it's too little, too late.
I know that Brawl in Cell Block 99 is meant to be a slow burn, and for many, therein lies its appeal. I guess I just like a different kind of slow burn. I kept waiting for this film to take its icy cool tone and translate it into something that exudes cool, something like Nicolas Winding Refn's equally stoic Drive. But instead, Zahler embraces a trashy, grindhouse approach, making a movie that is objectively ugly. The cinematography is almost deliberately bad, and while it sometimes makes the movie more fascinating, it also makes the intensity of the project feel more laughable. Zahler is undoubtedly an unique filmmaker, someone who makes unusual choices at every moment. His camera is often static, and his framing of locations is unsettling in a strange way. I just wish he was using his talents for something better than this.
Maybe I'm not as interested in the exploitation genre as I once thought. If this is the pinnacle of what a film like this can be in the 21st century, then count me out. Even though it's laced with a subtle undercurrent of dark, maliciously amusing humor, Brawl in Cell Block 99 is a grueling, overlong, and desperately self-serious affair. Despite creating a brand new world that is both terrifying and compelling, Zahler has made a film that feels gross and nasty in all the wrong ways. He's clearly a director with an eye for bloodshed, but the squirm-inducing objectivity of Brawl makes it a difficult watch. It's rare for me to outright dismiss a movie that has been so widely acclaimed, and in some ways, I understand what people are loving here. But while I was fascinated at first, my fascination turned to boredom and then disgust, as Zahler takes a clever concept to bizarre lows of gruesome vileness. It certainly has its merits, but the numbing, almost non-existent emotional effect of the obscenely vicious final product is deeply troubling, especially in today's day and age.
THE FINAL GRADE: C- (5/10)
Miraculously, I ended up hating Brawl in Cell Block 99. This wasn't just a movie that I didn't like or found disappointing- I had a fundamental, almost instinctual reaction of disgust to it. I know I'm in the total minority here, and maybe I'm looking at this film in the wrong way. Maybe the Green Room comparison was too prominent in my mind, and I couldn't appreciate the different movie that Zahler had made. As I said, I'm not an expert on the exploitation or midnight genres. Brawl in Cell Block 99 is undoubtedly impressive from a filmmaking standpoint, as Zahler is clearly doing something strange and interesting. And yeah, Vince Vaughn sells his terrifying role with appropriate macho ease. But ultimately, I found myself alternating between feeling bored and repulsed- this is a bland mess of self-seriousness lacking in emotion and humanity. I love a good gory thrill ride, but this one rubbed me in all the wrong ways.
Bradley Thomas (Vaughn) is a polite, distinctly Southern former drug dealer who's trying to go straight by working in a garage. But after being laid off and learning that his wife Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) has been having an affair, Bradley decides that it's time for a restart. After a burst of rage, Bradley and Jennifer agree to try to have a child once again, and he determines that it's time to go back to drug dealing. After a deal goes wrong 18 months later, Bradley finds himself facing 7 years in prison, time with his wife and daughter that he will never get back. Refusing to rat on his employer or fellow dealers, Bradley finds himself locked up. But when a mysterious man (Udo Kier) comes to prison with a terrifying threat against his wife and unborn daughter, Bradley will have to fight his way to Redleaf prison, the maximum security facility that houses the terrifying Cell Block 99.
Look, I obviously have nothing against cinematic violence. I opened this review by describing my adoration for a film in which a man's stomach is sliced open and killer dogs maul people to death- and that's only the start of it. But to me, on-screen violence has to have a purpose, either for the narrative or for the emotion that the filmmaker is trying to generate. The violence has to have a pulse- it has to make you feel something. This is why something like Green Room works for me, as Jeremy Saulnier is clearly trying to elicit a palpable feeling of sheer terror from the audience. Even Gareth Evans' Raid movies work on a pure visceral level, with the action scenes operating to give the film a kind of propulsive intensity. I say all of this to clarify why I found the violence in Brawl in Cell Block 99 so abhorrent- it exists for its own sake. It has no effect on the characters (except the ones who die), and I can't imagine it'll have much of an impact on the audience beyond the requisite cringes. This is a movie where heads are stomped in and arms break in half, and pretty much nobody on screen has a reaction. Maybe I've grown numb (although I'd say that the hand scene in Gerald's Game is evidence to the contrary), but I found myself unaffected by the disturbingly empty displays of violence in this film.
Zahler's uncomfortably soulless approach is omnipresent in this film. He has made something that feels kind of alien and other-worldly, which is interesting in a way. But any attempts at emotion (such as the final five minutes or so) feel profoundly fake, and each and every character speaks like a robot programmed to talk in hard-boiled prose. It's not hard to see the crime exploitation style that Zahler is trying to imitate here, but it comes at the detriment of the film. After a fast start that's truly engaging in a way I didn't expect, Zahler sucks the humanity out of the film. Every scene feels like the start of a macho stand-off between two equally uninteresting characters, two guys who just want to beat each other's heads in for the sake of it. Vince Vaughn plays Bradley Thomas perfectly in line with Zahler's style, and he's fearsome, intimidating, and surprising. He's the best thing in the movie, and in a film that better used his talents, I would say that it's one of the finest performances of the year. But in Brawl, Vaughn is left with schlock that forces him to keep a straight face and play a remorseless killing machine. When Zahler and Vaughn stretch to make Bradley empathetic, it's too little, too late.
I know that Brawl in Cell Block 99 is meant to be a slow burn, and for many, therein lies its appeal. I guess I just like a different kind of slow burn. I kept waiting for this film to take its icy cool tone and translate it into something that exudes cool, something like Nicolas Winding Refn's equally stoic Drive. But instead, Zahler embraces a trashy, grindhouse approach, making a movie that is objectively ugly. The cinematography is almost deliberately bad, and while it sometimes makes the movie more fascinating, it also makes the intensity of the project feel more laughable. Zahler is undoubtedly an unique filmmaker, someone who makes unusual choices at every moment. His camera is often static, and his framing of locations is unsettling in a strange way. I just wish he was using his talents for something better than this.
Maybe I'm not as interested in the exploitation genre as I once thought. If this is the pinnacle of what a film like this can be in the 21st century, then count me out. Even though it's laced with a subtle undercurrent of dark, maliciously amusing humor, Brawl in Cell Block 99 is a grueling, overlong, and desperately self-serious affair. Despite creating a brand new world that is both terrifying and compelling, Zahler has made a film that feels gross and nasty in all the wrong ways. He's clearly a director with an eye for bloodshed, but the squirm-inducing objectivity of Brawl makes it a difficult watch. It's rare for me to outright dismiss a movie that has been so widely acclaimed, and in some ways, I understand what people are loving here. But while I was fascinated at first, my fascination turned to boredom and then disgust, as Zahler takes a clever concept to bizarre lows of gruesome vileness. It certainly has its merits, but the numbing, almost non-existent emotional effect of the obscenely vicious final product is deeply troubling, especially in today's day and age.
THE FINAL GRADE: C- (5/10)
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