1992 black comedy
Rating: 16/20
Plot: Residents of a one-street suburb next to an artificial forest try to figure out what they want in a mailman.
Possibly, this is Alex van Warmerdam critiquing repressive nature of Dutch suburbanites. The town does have its own school, butcher shop, and forest, and they do have access to a church in a nearby community, but they're really closed off from the rest of society. The characters feel like pieces in a playful allegory. The blind hunter guy, the postman, the other postman, the kid on the motorcycle, the horny butcher. Add in a vulture, a religious icon coming to life, forest butt temptation, surprise sainthood, and an inept traveling museum, and you've got a lot of pieces that don't really come together but feel like they have to be about something.
Regardless if the non sequiturs and absurdist humor really add up to anything at all, this might be the van Warmerdam movie that I've enjoyed the most so far. I think I've decided that I have a sense of humor that fits right in with the collective sense of humor of Scandinavia. Kaurismaki, Andersson, Bergman. van Warmerdam. These guys are hilarious!
If you need any evidence that van Warmerdam is a comedic genius, look no further than the scene in this where a guy pops in to sell ice cream.
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