This is one dark drama that blows my mind, it is that damn good! Wrapped in a blanket of revenge and crime tale is a heart-wrenching unrequited love story and Actor Matthias Schoenaerts gives a towering performance as a man who doesn't feel like he could fully function because of a certain childhood tragedy that left him traumatized for the rest of his life. Everything about this movie, from the direction to the design to the cinematography has Oscars written all over it. Hollywood could not come up with a story as powerful as this
Gripping, from start to finish, writer/director Michael Roskam created this character Jacky (Schoenaerts) who's extremely complex, engulfed in anger and sadness and despair, all those emotions just screaming to get out of their protective wall that is Jacky's massive, intimidating physical appearance. The tragedy that Roskam presents is the kind that you wouldn't easily shake off or forget for days after. I as a male viewer, find that particular scene disturbing and painful to watch. So much so that you share Jacky's anger, you'd find it easy to justify his actions, and you'd want him to enact his revenge and throw whatever mercy he has left out the window and all because he was not given a chance of mercy as a kid. Roskam has created a tragedy so deeply affecting that it makes it difficult for the audience to accept the idea that the story might take a detour down redemption lane because revenge seems like a much more comforting option. BULLHEAD is also somewhat a gangster film, it's also got its own murder mystery, undercover cop, and it's set in a rural farming community and so the mob depicted in this film doesn't look as stylized as the mob that you grew up watching in Hollywood cinema. In BULLHEAD, the bad guys are just trying to get by, just like everybody else. At one point, Jacky looks at the cattle in the barn and compares their lives as humans to the cattle, which serves as this film's profundity His friend helps him do his final bidding, that which he hopes would turn out as planned, sadly his presence is met with fear by the woman he professes to, which brings him to the conclusion that he could never escape his damaged condition, which is why the end scene makes the entire film feels even more distressing, some stories and some characters are just not meant to end on a happy note. BULLHEAD is a one of a kind masterpiece.
Review of Bullhead
