Watch Septien For Free

Really Surprised!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

"I call this one BREAKFAST," says the artist, pointing to a painting of cartoon demons and football players cutting off each others' genitalia and eating them with blobs of poop, "because it's the most important meal of the day."SEPTIEN is definitely a one-of-a-kind. Its stark Gothic mood with brooding characters and thick tension make you feel like it's heading for a tragedy of Greek proportions. Its heavy pacing and suspenseful presentation (never quite explaining who anyone is until the very end) make you think it's a thriller or even a ghost story. Each & every character is heading for a nervous breakdown. Nobody smiles, ever.It's hard to believe that this is a comedy, but I can't describe it any other way.In the same way Tarantino and the Coen Brothers make hyper-violent, disturbing films that make us laugh, here we have a similar approach but without all the violence. The film carries the mood by using haunting images, hints of some dark trauma, and above all: secrets, secrets, secrets. This is brilliant mood-filmmaking at its best, folks.Now throw into the mix some of the most bizarre characters you've ever seen. An odd bearded man who returns to his family after 18 years and who makes a living by doing strange things in the park. A brother who paints--as one character describes--"people cutting off their wee-wees and eating poop". A man who cooks & cleans like June Cleaver on crack. A creepy old guy and a very young, attractive girl whom he introduces only as "she's not my daughter!" A mysterious dude who spends the first half of the movie walking around with a briefcase. And a mentally-challenged kid who lives in a tire and seems to be the only sane person of the bunch.What follows is the slow yet electrifying unravelling of secrets. Piece by piece we put together the jigsaw puzzle of what these people are all about. We make assumptions. Nothing is known for sure until the last 15 minutes when we get one of the most "wtf" climaxes and resolutions in the history of cinema.I enjoyed this movie from the beginning, but it was that crazy ending that made me a fan. It's as if all the suspense, tension and weirdness that had been building up for the first 70 minutes just explodes in a dazzling display of fireworks. It will either leave you feeling totally satisfied or in need of some jumper cables to revive your brain. Either way, this is an experience that shouldn't be missed.

So, it wasn't terrible. I watched the whole thing. I enjoyed the athletic prowess of Cornelius and felt that was a story which could have been developed with interest. But wasn't. In fact, although very slow moving, there was more story to tell. Did they run out of film? (HAHA, since no one uses film.) The introduction of the evangelical preacher at the last moment to tie up the plot- and the miscreant was too facile for my taste. There was a kernel of thought in this movie, but it was never allowed to germinate properly. It had just sprouted when they stopped watering it.Good directors/ screenwriters make movies for their audience. Great directors/screenwriters make movies for their audience and to express their inner feelings about the human condition. Mediocre directors/screenwriters make movies for themselves and don't care if their message is inscrutable.

If you're looking for something quirky and good, definitely check this out. It will keep you guessing wtf it's about till the end, and even then, you're not sure what you watched- a football feel-good movie, a southern Gothic thriller, a comedy, or an indie morality play.It had me laughing my head off, but it wasn't my typical laugh- it was a laugh followed by a full sentence. I watched it with my brother, which probably wasn't a good idea considering the plot of this film. Tully joins the ranks of Mike Leigh, Hal Hartley and Todd Solondz as a film maker with a unique vision. The part where they harmonized on "Smother Your Demons" was priceless.

Original story, starting with the lost brother who comes home after many years. Gradually, several other people appear, all of them adding to the mix of unusual characters. Funny things happen from the start, and continue through the end. Apart from the guy with the metal detector finding various interesting items around the house, also some proverbial skeletons come out of the closet.Before this one I attended a screening in the Rotterdam filmfestival 2011, that puzzled me what it was all about. Luckily, this film resurrected me, and it gave me a wonderful hilarious 80 minutes. No more needs to be said. Only that I'm still wondering where the vicar (was he really one?) came from, and how he fits in the picture.