Review of Raw (2017) by Nicholas V — 14 Jun 2017

I'm gonna describe the movie Raw and I think I'm gonna succeed. So it's about a med school freshman/rookie who starts school as a vegetarian, is forced to try meat and then she discovers that maybe she likes a certain type of meat she shouldn't. Yeah, spoiler alert: it's people. But before you go in thinking its a movie about a young woman who becomes a cannibal, its really not. Its really about her discovering her identity, dealing with romantic attractions and forging a bond with her sister. I think this movie is supposed to be nuts? It's hard to say what's bizarre filmmaking anymore with movies like Neon Demon, Nocturnal Animals, The VVitch, Life, Split and a lot of R-rated comedies like CHiPs having come out in the last two years. So the gross-out stuff in Raw doesn't truly go above and beyond what's been explored already by Hollywood, but then again I don't think the gross-out factor was the main selling point. This is a character story with a compelling plot - despite how simple it is in structure - and great lead performances from the two lead women. There's a very effective scene involving a mirror, and a lot of other moments work very well on their own while still coming together to create a pretty riveting experience altogether with a lot to say about coming of age and about bodies...namely the female body. There is nudity, but it never feels gratuitous. It's shown in ways that don't make you really desire that person, but rather in ways that either drives up the tension or helps reveal a person as she naturally is. Raw is absolutely not for everyone. This isn't so much a horror movie as it is a weird dark comedy of sorts. There's a lot here to revisit, analyze and figure out on repeat viewings, and the character decisions for the most part felt believable. If I had any major complaints, it's actually that I wish the movie was longer to feature more character moments and further showcase the main character's transformation. This movie is a little over 90 minutes- at the same time though, it did in places feel longer than that, so I wanted a longer movie that felt shorter in places. There was also an annoying loud sound effect to signify this awful thing that just happened, and it wasn't needed to convey the impact of the scene.

Raw is still a pretty powerful film with a lot to offer, so I will say that it is Ownable and that it gets an 8 out of 10.