Rhapsodies

You’d think after doing serial killers last week I’d get as far away from the topic as possible until Halloween. Instead, I double down watching films about how the media hypes serial killers. 

The first film on my list Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers tells the story of Micky and Mallory Knox ( Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) a pair of psychopaths on a killing spree. In the process, they become media icons, propped up by tabloid journalist Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr.) while hunted by corrupt celebrity detective Jack Scagnetti (Tom Sizemore). If you think that’s bad imagine what happens when they actually catch them. 

Natural Born Killers was one of those films that are better known for the controversy than the film itself. Frankly, I think I think it’s overrated. It’s pretty much an excuse for Stone to do just about every heavy-handed, He goes back and forth between color and black and white and whatever else in between. At first one would think he’s playing with the perceptions of insanity vs the real world but it’s inconsistent. He does other things throughout the film but ultimately it’s just one big mess. 

My next film, Man Bites Dog (French: C’est arrivé près de chez vous, literally “It Happened Near Your Home”) written, produced and directed by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde take this even farther with a film crew following the serial killer, Ben (Benoît Poelvoorde). Ben takes the crew through his day as he murders people while telling them the tricks in the trade and his views of life. Gradually the crew is drawn in. 

This was funny at times, in a dark cynical way, but ultimately disappointing.