Review of Murder Party (2007) by Oliver S — 19 Dec 2007

Good ideas and talent behind this. Pace could be tightened up. A lot of Murder Party feels like a play, meant to be performed on a stage before a live audience, and there can be too much dawdling about and, "Okay, where is this going?" parts that test the patience and strain one's willingness to suspend disbelief. The movie starts out conventionally, veers unexpectedly into social satire and for a few seconds seems to hold great promise as razor-sharp social commentary disguised as horror. The movie seems cognizant of how good it can be, then refuses to continue on this trajectory and begins to wallow in its own preciousness. Again, pacing needs to be tightened.

Unfortunately this is the sort of movie, liek Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation or movies like Life Aquatic/Royal Tennenbaums, where if you don't like it, a lot of people will be at-the-ready to condemn you for not having artsy enough, or sufficiently highbrow, tastes. Won't matter how many Luis Bunuel or Godard films you've seen, if you don't "get it," you're obviously not smart or intelligent or hip or something -- that is the kind of following I can see this thing having. Well, this movie really could have been much better than it was, but it wallows too self-consciously in its own potential and overstays its welcome. Tighter editing might have made it more compelling. Will be interesting to see what these filmmakers do in the future, as there are nuggets of great ideas in it. Kind of an underdeveloped and tangled mess as it stands, though.