Septien (2011)

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

.............. but I enjoyed it!The setting is spooky enough to make you have no end of thoughts as to which direction this flick will take. A back woods family of men with each having an unusual and possibly disturbed personality.The comedy is very thin here and the acting is borderline amateurish but director Tully keeps it tame and in the end we have an odd movie with lots of questions for the viewer.To analyze this movie would go in too many directions but i believe the message is we are what we are and no amount of preaching will change it!

"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.

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.