If you’re looking for a movie to really punch you in the gut and knock you flat, check out Bullhead, the 2011 Belgian film from rising star filmmaker Michaël R. Roskam (2014’s underrated crime drama The Drop, with Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini), as you’re unlikely to find cinema more uncompromising than this. Starring the excellent actor Matthias Schoenaerts as a cattle farmer with a dangerous and extremely sad personal secret, this is one of those films that could only have been made outside of the American studio system, and the less you know about it before viewing the better off you’ll be. Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2012, the narrative pivots on sketchy deals made by beef traders and morally questionable veterinarians, the loss of one’s own physical and mental self, and how loneliness can breed a special degree of hostility and rage. Multiple plot lines converge in Roskam’s twisty and twisted narrative, while the entire film is propped up on Schoenaerts broad shoulders, as he delivers an exquisitely pained performance that’s as emotionally visceral as it is outwardly violent. After demonstrating some serious range as an actor with vivid and memorable performances in this film, Rust & Bone, The Drop, Blood Ties, and Far From the Madding Crowd, I’m extremely psyched to see where this magnetic screen presence takes us next; this year’s A Bigger Splash looks like a juicy thriller and the unreleased in America WW2 drama Suite Francaise sounds very interesting.
Podcasting Them Softly 