This Netfux
production is a blood- and death- and sex-drenched Polish black comedy that is
more enjoyable than it probably should be. If there is a core lesson to be learnt
from the narrative of All My Friends Are
Dead, then it is surely that one should not have hot, orgasmic sex while
holding a loaded gun in one's hand (or, in turn, you shouldn't orgasm a babe if
she's holding a loaded gun). For it is with the scene in which this transpires
that the dominoes (as in bodies) begin to fall, one after the other, resulting
in the resolution whence this film takes its name. In that sense, the movie
doesn't really have a plot: it simply starts with everyone dead and then shows
how it happened.
Polish Trailer to
Wszyscy moi przyjaciele nie zyja:
All My Friends Are Dead opens the morning after a catalytic New
Year's party in which all the friends die, and playfully enough the movie's
title is not delivered in writing but by the spoken words of the sole survivor
as she is carried out on a stretcher, her neck obviously broken. This prefatory
scene also reveals that Polish cops, with or without sticky fingers, seem to be
about as incompetent as American cops are willing to kill black people. But not
too much time is spent on the mildly critical presentation of the capabilities
of Polish cops; instead, after a quick review of diverse dead individuals and
the pile of corpses as a whole, the movie quickly moves to the past to reveal
just how the swinging private party of twens — a party not all that different
from millions around the world on any given New Year's night — became a house
full of dead people.
For the opening party scene of his feature film
directorial debut, the director and screenwriter Jan Belcl resorts to an extremely
artificial artifice to get the introductions out of the way: the viewer
basically looks over the shoulder of two guests as the popular host walks
through the party and gives a quick introductory explanation of (or has a quick
revealing exchange with) all the faces of importance. Not everyone in the
party, in other words, but enough people that specific characters register,
allowing one to put the still-living faces in conjunction with the dead bodies seen
at the start of the movie. Soon thereafter All
My Friends Are Dead segues into farcicality and grotesque, so realistic conduct often is
lacking (see: sex with a loaded gun in your hand). But then, who needs realism
or logic when, after the first *GASP!*, the crude and nasty laughs flow so
easily?
True, the humor is often sexist, crass, or simply puerile,
but as blatant and obvious and easy as many of the laughs are, a few are also subtle
(look at the girl's face when her boyfriend says he respects her too much to
ever piss on her), have long build-ups (what happens after she breaks up with
him for being such a wimp), or are unexpected (exploding silicon anyone?). Indeed,
although the film comes across as not particularly intelligent and
definitely tasteless, there is often a lot more behind the events and
interactions than what plays out. Some jokes, for all their bluntness,
display an enjoyably socially critical basis — it just isn't obvious as
they occur. And
amidst it all, Gloria (Monika Krzywkowska ), a total party-girl MILF, even
manages to give a long and extremely touching rant about the fears, if not
probably realities, older women face when entering a serious relationship with
a younger man.
Director Jan Belcl almost loses control of his material during the big
finale scene (specifically, the point in which the gun turns into one of those
magic guns that ever needs reloading), but he catches the curve with a killer
Christmas tree, a scene that reveals why every house should have a security
circuit breaker, and a closing alternative-reality ending that reveals that
sometimes shit happens even in perfect places. (Can a film be homophobic and
homo-happy at the same time?)
All My Friends Are Dead is definitely not
everyone's cup of tea, but if you are the type that enjoys a blackly funny body
count, this tightly shot grotesque will probably offer you a pleasant evening's
viewing.
And always remember: don't forget to drink enough
liquids when you're dancing the night away on X.
No comments:
Post a Comment