Man Bites Dog

Just an everyday, enthusiastic businessman.

How much ballast do you need to wrap up with a corpse to keep it from floating? How much more for the elderly, or for children? What rare opportunity arises when you notice a box of Sedocar on Granny's coffee table? How do you make a 'Dead Baby Boy?' Learn the answer to all of these and more in Man Bites Dog, a charming little flick where a film crew follows a serial killer around on his daily business.

Interviewer Remy, cameraman Andre and soundman Patric, follow Benoit, who fancies himself a normal, cultured business man, and likes to wax philosophic about women, art, culture, and the benefits of targeting lonely geriatrics vs the young for greater profits. Though at first we find him charming, albiet crude, we quickly  find ourselves recoiling from his boisterous laughter, unnerving mood swings, and his ‘work’ demeanor. Often racist, bigoted, and sanctimonious, we are forced to take his opinions and monologues with a heaping grain of salt (like another critic we know! We <3 you, Plinkett!).

The man knows how to unwind after a long day at work.

Like any good, charming psychotic, Benoit gradually pulls the camera crew closer and closer until they start going to work for him in the capture and disposal of many victims, celebrating each day of destruction by throwing one hell of an orgiastic party of boozing and harassing bar owners and wait staff.

Shot in black and white and recorded on film, the cinematography has a warm timeless quality (that also helps to subdue the excessive gore). The filmmakers played a lot with sound, often having the mic far from the camera, distorting our perceptions of distance and time, furthering our disconnect from our subject(s). The actors interact naturally and smoothly, one of the best parts of a low-budget mockumentaries. This movie was beautiful, dark, funny, suspenseful.... to a point, fucking awesome. 

POP QUIZ TIME

Mrs. Ramirez, 84, 125 lbs. is being thrown into a ravine. How much ballast should have been added to the bag to ensure she doesn't resurface?

Rating: 5/5 "Hell yes, we'll watch this again and force our friends to watch it too!"

Pacific Heights

We heard about 'Pacific Heights' from BRAVO's top 100 Scares list a few years ago, and decided to finally give it a shot. Sure, the overwhelming, vast majority of the reviews were terrible, but there was always a caveat that Keaton's performance as a psychotic, conniving squatter made everything worthwhile.

Wrong.