Review of My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2010) by Bernard O — 27 Sep 2010

Tarkovsky said that there are two types of directors: those who try to replicate the real world and those who try to create their own world. Herzog is definitely the latter and this movie is no exception. Nothing feels quite right and that is what makes it so good. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be as funny as I found it but it worked for me. besides the humor there were suddenly thought provoking moments which were on the surface so cheesy as to be perhaps off-putting but they were so excruciatingly drawn out that the mind reels with trying to make connections, to figure out why the makers are doing this. I think this is probably where lynch's influence shows clearest. whereas herzog might embrace an absurdity with a compulsion to understand "why", lynch's particular brand of vision seems comfortable with absurdity for absurdity's sake.

And speaking of herzog and compulsions, I was delighted that he seems unable to resist filming back at river's edge in a south american jungle, if only for a few scenes, and that those scenes are so ripe with malicious intensity, reminiscent of his past work.