Review of Burning Palms (2010) by Kante A — 01 Aug 2011
I'm not afraid of depravity in a mainstream film (The French film 'The Piano Teacher' being a horrifying exception) but this film falls very short in the setups. The acting is fine, but the direction is a little too slick and the writing immature. Strong visuals that forgot to add much narrative artistry. ****.
Sorry, I was writing this while watching the first vignette wholly expecting the hacky writing to payoff with the requisite boldness that the edgy visuals were leading towards but apparently the director choked. He didn't have the nerve to actually finish the head game onscreen. It literally ended in the safety of 'plausible deniability.' I'll put it this way, It's like you were going to write something really depraved and then suddenly you got worried your grandmother might see it and it would be too much for her. Right now I'm in the middle of the second vignette which is even less interesting and heading in the same "safe' direction. The movie is frozen in front of me, mid scene, and there's no way I'm pressing play.
One star.
This review of Burning Palms (2010) was written by Kante A on 01 Aug 2011.
Burning Palms has generally received mixed reviews.
Was this review helpful?
