A world of obscurity and darkness gradually surrounds a bartender after finding a phone left at his bar.
At first, everyone’s merry. People ‘necking’ life in shot glasses seems like the way to go in a world full of worries. Then, different people who don’t belong to that world leave behind this phone, which carries… wounds that people from neither world can possibly comprehend. And then, no one’s merry anymore. And then everyone discovers their dark side…
Friends of mine have been calling me over the last few months, asking me if I have watched Wounds. My response was, ‘No, should I watch it?’ and their reply was something along the lines of ‘No, coz it sucks balls!’. What can I say? I’m a bad listener. Or am I? So, I watched it. And so should you. Wounds is based on Nathan Ballingrud’s novella ‘The Visible Filth’ which I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t read so I can’t comment on the adaptation, compare, or contrast it. As a film in itself, though, Wounds will get your undivided attention. Do not try to rationalise it. Do not try to give meaning to every word spoken or the staccato editing choices rapidly presented to you. Just watch it, looking towards every corner of your screen as the mise-en-scène meticulously frames what you need to know. When the end credits appear out of the blue, give it a minute or two to move past the ‘WTF just happened’ feeling, try not to go apeshit as well, and only then start putting things into perspective. And even then, good luck!
Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson, and Zazie Beetz do brilliant work in front of the camera. Behind it, Babak Anvari, director of the eerie, paranormal Iranian horror Under the Shadow (2016), shakes hands with Netflix, defies canon and Hollywood’s jumpscares, and opts for long tracking shots and slow editing to haunt New Orleans and unify two worlds that should never have been brought together.
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!
Stay safe!
