Like Tom Hardy in BRONSON, Matthias Schoenaerts gives a riveting, magnetic star making performance in this twist-turning gangster tale with a highly unusual backstory.
“Belgium has a population of 11 million, split into the Dutch-speaking Flemings, who make up 60 percent of the population and live mainly in the north, and the southern French-speaking Walloons, who make up 40 percent of the population. Language is the fundamental flaw at the core of Belgium’s existential crisis, taking on the role that race, religion or ethnicity play in other conflict-riven societies. The country operates on the basis of linguistic apartheid, which infects everything from public libraries to local and regional government, the education system, the political parties, national television, the newspapers, even soccer teams.”
If Jacky is not in a scene, you are waiting for him to turn up.
In flashbacks we see that the Vanmarsenilles have been using illegal hormones to speed up the growth of their cattle for a long time. Looks like Jacky has been helping himself a tad too much to the goods – “Lesson number two: Don’t get high on the cattle’s supply”.
The Vanmarsenilles vet wants Jacky to supply beef to a big Flanders hormone trafficker, Marc Decuyper (Sam Louwyck). Decuyper had a cop investigating his illegal business killed and now wants a slight-of-hand legitimate business as a cover. Jacky does not want
Decuyper got French-speaking car mechanics from Walloon to ditch the cop’s car. Acknowledging the acrimonious nature of the country’s people, the mechanics are The Three Stooges of BULLHEAD. They have stripped the car of its tires and sold them to Jacky’s brother. The tires will lead the police straight to Jacky.
And when you find out what happened to Jacky as a young boy and the consequences, you are horrified and wonder how he has lived his life for the past twenty years.
No one in BULLHEAD is redeemable. Even if you want to feel sorry for Jacky, he’s involved in a disgraceful practice of poisoning people with hormone-stacked meat.
BULLHEAD’s writer and director, Michaël R. Roskam, has a singular personal vision. Watching BULLHEAD was similar to my introduction to Timur Bekmambetov, the Russian-Kazakh director of NIGHT WATCH (2004). And like Bekmambetov, who has gone on to direct the Hollywood hit WANTED (2008) and this year’s highly anticipated ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, Roskam is destined to be Hollywood’s newest foreign acquisition.
Roskam is a powerful director with a hard-edged philosophical view of life. He does not indulge his characters or even feels the need to explain their behavior. A gangster movie with a strong emphasis on the inner life of its central character, BULLHEAD is ordinary and daring at the same time.
The cinematography by Nicholas Karakatsanis assists in visually bringing Roskam’s vision to the screen. The dark, foreboding countryside is not idyllic cow pastures. You feel the cold, wind, and rain.
BULLHEAD (Belgium) was one of the 63 films submitted for the Best Foreign Language Film category in the 84th Academy Awards. It is now in competition with MONSIEUR LAZHAR (Canada), A SEPARATION (Iran), FOOTNOTE (Israel) and IN DARKNESS (Poland).
Member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association: www.bfca.org/ and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society: www.lvfcs.org/
Victoria’s weekly column, “The Devil’s Hammer,” is posted every Monday.http://www.fromthebalcony.com/editorials.php. If you would like to be included on Victoria’s private distribution list for a weekly preview, just email her at masauu@aol.com.
Victoria Alexander lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and answers every email. You can contact Victoria directly at masauu@aol.com.