Tarantino says this was the best film of 2013. I disagree.
Big Bad Wolves is a film that felt like a mix of Korean revenge films like Lady Vengeance and The Chaser in terms of the violence and twists, but it's slow pacing is reminiscent of the Austrian film Michael (2011), which is essentially the darker and more messed up version of this film. (And I would highly recommend it because I have never heard anyone discuss it and I thought it was pretty good.)
I think either dark comedies are not my bag, or dark comedies these days aren't that great. I'm going with the latter. A film like American Psycho is funny as hell but also contains some disturbing stuff. It meshes well. This film, and many others like it, bounce back and forth between comedy and serious so much that you get whiplash. It doesn't mesh, and that's the key that a dark comedy needs.
The one thing I did like was the whole twist that occurs, which I won't spoil, but I thought was smart. The issue is, it just kind of ends on that. Not that a film can't end on a twist like that, as the aforementioned film Michael ends in a similar fashion but works way better. This ending kind of has you going "Ok..." and that's about it. Perhaps it would have worked better for me if I had found the rest of the film more interesting, but I didn't. The build up takes a while and some of the stuff feels unnecessary. Details like the father that shows up could almost be completely cut from the film and it would be much better.
Let me end this review by mentioning that Tarantino listed Drive (2011) under his "Nice Try Award" section of his top picks for 2011 films. To Big Bad Wolves, I say...
Nice try.
Big Bad Wolves is a film that felt like a mix of Korean revenge films like Lady Vengeance and The Chaser in terms of the violence and twists, but it's slow pacing is reminiscent of the Austrian film Michael (2011), which is essentially the darker and more messed up version of this film. (And I would highly recommend it because I have never heard anyone discuss it and I thought it was pretty good.)
I think either dark comedies are not my bag, or dark comedies these days aren't that great. I'm going with the latter. A film like American Psycho is funny as hell but also contains some disturbing stuff. It meshes well. This film, and many others like it, bounce back and forth between comedy and serious so much that you get whiplash. It doesn't mesh, and that's the key that a dark comedy needs.
The one thing I did like was the whole twist that occurs, which I won't spoil, but I thought was smart. The issue is, it just kind of ends on that. Not that a film can't end on a twist like that, as the aforementioned film Michael ends in a similar fashion but works way better. This ending kind of has you going "Ok..." and that's about it. Perhaps it would have worked better for me if I had found the rest of the film more interesting, but I didn't. The build up takes a while and some of the stuff feels unnecessary. Details like the father that shows up could almost be completely cut from the film and it would be much better.
Let me end this review by mentioning that Tarantino listed Drive (2011) under his "Nice Try Award" section of his top picks for 2011 films. To Big Bad Wolves, I say...
Nice try.