Review of Irreversible (2002) by Masorad ( — 20 Sep 2009

Stylized nihilism that alternates between noxious and obnoxious. The reversed chronology succeeds in standing the routine revenge story on its head, but the spacetime distortion in the camerawork, the long takes, the forward-to-the past gimmick really only serve to prolong the agony of the characters and the audience.

The film at times seems to delight in its provocation, daring you to look away (the infamous static-cam anal rape of Bellucci) and Noe surely wants viewers to confront the basest evil men are capable of, but the fact is nihilism is ultimately an adolescent's conceit, an affectation disabused by experience.