Where MASK and ELEPHANT MAN were predictable, feel good movies, this one, like Todd Browning's FREAKS, really gets close to reality. The movie blurs the difference between documentary and fiction in unsettling ways.
Plot summary
A beautiful actress struggles to connect with her disfigured co-star on the set of a European auteur's English-language debut.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
March 01, 2020 at 07:36 PM
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Top cast
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as engrossing as disturbing
In the eye of the beholder
A unique film that acts to comment and critique the audiences biases. Technically speaking the film is excellent, with unique shots that fulfill a larger purpose. They didn't film a scene a specific way because it looked good, but because it fit the narrative, or was trying to make the audience as uncomfortable as the actors.
The story is simple and i was there was more meat on the bone, at points it felt like it drifted off focus, and the conclusion felt rushed and underdeveloped. Ultimately the film acts to break down and critique how "abnormal" people are viewed by society and treated in the film industry. It does an excellent job directing this message to the audience, if you pay attention you will understand what the director is saying about our behaviour towards the "abnormal".
Unfortunately i think the movie was held back by some unconvincing performances by Jess Weixler and Stephen Plunkett. Their dialogue felt unnatural and as if they were reading directly off a script. Every other actor did a fine job, especially Adam Pearson, who delivered a stunningly charged performance during a car scene in particular (no spoiler).
I would recommend this film to anyone interested , it could challenge your world view.
'Chained for Life' is bound to beguile any sensation-seeking fan of exquisitely wrought cinematic wonder!
I had the extraordinarily good fortune to recently watch Aaron Schimberg's unexpectedly fabulous, darkly mesmerising psychodrama 'Chained for Life' (2018),and it most certainly won't be the last time I return to this ceaselessly dazzling kaleidoscope of bravura fascinating originality! 'Chained for Life' boasts a really lovely, ornate, sparklingly original premise, a richly woven text, withering pathos, wonderfully sardonic performances, and a deliciously irreverent tone that make this devilishly clever oddity a sensationally convention-boggling delight from its enigmatic start to breathlessly brilliant finish! For me, maestro Schimberg's emotionally edifying, tantalizingly transgressive 'Chained for Life' is one of those all-too rare, blissfully unclassifiable films that one should ideally go into totally blind; keeping dem voyeuristic peepers open once the movie starts, natch!!!! But I just have to say, the Werner Herzog-sounding director was a genuinely exquisite touch! The multi-faceted, persistently perspicacious phantasmagoria 'Chained for Life' is bound to beguile any innately curious, sensation-seeking fan of exquisitely wrought,insightfully humane, refreshingly cliche free cinematic wonder!