Review of The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) by Brandon W — 11 Nov 2017

Guiness, catharsis and the art of movie making.

"Good" art is like a fine wine, that transforms the night and makes your company spring to life. "Great" art is like a fire smoldering inside your soul for days, crackling and flickering, silently illuminating the doorways of your inner sanctuary.

Lanthimos' movie is a masterpiece in this regard. Colin Farrell's unromantic cardiologist is literally at the heart of this Kieslowskian tale of divine retribution, and together with an impeccable cast, he drives it forward mercilessly to the brink of excruciation.

It is impossible to speak in any exact terms about plot and thematic consequence without spoiling the movie, so I'll take my chance of coming across as enigmatic, if only because I hope you'll get the full impact of the movie that way. I personally had it spoiled after reading a review that told me several plot points and interpretations of what the hell was going on. The kind of help that doesn't help, because this movie requires active participation of its viewer, and a review of that kind puts you to sleep. It brought a slightly annoying anticipation into the dark afternoon screening room at the Irish Film Institute, where I spent the best two hours of my afternoon in company with twenty something other moviegoers, of which many complained loudly at the end of the movie while I sat still as a wounded bird, trying to digest what just hit me. Go ahead, judge me. I don't seek out pain, but the inevitable suffering we all at large come across in our lives, needs to be purged by the mirror of its nature. It is what the Greeks called catharsis, and this new Greek brings us catharsis nouveau.

After I came out of the cinema with a queezy stomach, I walked to the nearest pint of Guiness. And I had a couple before a friend of mine asked me, if I thought the movie good or bad. I couldn't answer. I guess I was wrapped up in digesting still, and only now a couple of days after, do I have a kind of answer. And my answer is this:

If Indiana Jones is a guitar solo ripping through the fabric of myth to bring us the pinnacle of entertainment, then Killing of A Sacred Deer is a fingering of the deepest bass strings in our mythology. A pulse much more disturbing and cleansing than any superficial fairy tale. And the movie is a fairy tale, wrapped in nothing but supernatural characters and plot. But I am already saying too much. Go see it. You may be bored and wish it was never made. As with any art. But there is a chance that this movie will change you. That its compass will realign the cells in your body. That its incessant drumming of sacred beats, inception-like will call you out of the grave that is everyday.

So to answer the question clearly, I thought it "good". But to do it justice, I have to tie onto that glib category, that the movie could be so much more for you. And so it inevitably belongs to the category "great".