Borgman

2013 psychological dramedy

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Subterranean demon people work their way into the lives of a family and make them a garden.

This was highly recommended by a cinephile named Eric, a guy who knows my tastes in movies better than almost anybody. If I have an alley, this was probably right up it, mostly because I enjoy movies about guys with wild hair and beards. It's a impenetrable fable of a movie, the sort that might be about several different things at once or about nothing at all. Either way is cool with me. I'm pretty sure I think it's about the buried and sometimes absurd forces that can destroy a family, but the reading feels too simplistic for a movie with so much going on. I mean, what's the church have to do with anything here? Why are the destructive, subterranean influences unearthed by an action involving a priest? I've read that there are parallels to the Garden of Eden here, but that seems even more simplistic than my analysis.

I loved the movie's tone and look forward to more director Alex van Warmerdam. I was reminded of Lanthimos in the way Warmerdam creates a world that is completely familiar but in a coldly ominous way. The matter-of-fact surrealism helps create a gentle nightmare, and the sense of humor is definitely reminiscent of Lanthimos's brand of dark comedy. I do believe this movie has actual gags, and if you have a dark heart, you might laugh at them.