THE MURDERER is a wild trip, and I am not saying it as a figure of speech, it truly is a mad trip as literal magic mushrooms are present in the film and are even responsible for a large chunk of the story. The writing is just flawless, and the direction is marvellous. It tells a story of a mass murder from multiple vantage points, and its narrative is so dense and wacky at the same time, that you can't help but marvel at its intelligence, both in storytelling as well as in its clever subversion of tropes. The film constructs an interesting fish-out-of-water scenario and cleverly subverts conventions where rather than the white man being the saviour, he needs to be saved. If taken at face value, the story is pretty straightforward, but it's narrated through a very fractured and non-linear style. It's as much a hilarious comedy as an intense murder mystery, and both genres merge perfectly in this madcap tale. Also who could have thought that a mystery comedy can teach such a valuable lesson about prejudice, preconceived notions and their adverse role in our life?
The film manages to wrap its wonderfully intermittent narrative nicely by the end, and the moment you think it's over, the film throws another curve ball, which makes the whole thing a bit murky and the circumstances involving a lot of happenings slightly convenient.
Technically, the film is also competent with awesome cinematography, brilliant all-around ensemble performances and superb sound design. This film was a pleasant surprise for me and easily among my favourite films of the year. Go watch it, it's a great idiosyncratic non-linear comic mystery thriller about mass murder, a family with lots of issues, an unfortunate white man, lots of inherent biases, a few misunderstandings, some drugs and either a very clever or a straight-up psycho person.
The film manages to wrap its wonderfully intermittent narrative nicely by the end, and the moment you think it's over, the film throws another curve ball, which makes the whole thing a bit murky and the circumstances involving a lot of happenings slightly convenient.
Technically, the film is also competent with awesome cinematography, brilliant all-around ensemble performances and superb sound design. This film was a pleasant surprise for me and easily among my favourite films of the year. Go watch it, it's a great idiosyncratic non-linear comic mystery thriller about mass murder, a family with lots of issues, an unfortunate white man, lots of inherent biases, a few misunderstandings, some drugs and either a very clever or a straight-up psycho person.