Intcatinfo
A Masterpiece!
Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
willwoodmill
Simon Killer is the new Psychological thriller by Antonio Campos, the film follows Simon (played by Bradley Corbet) as he travels in Paris trying to forget about his girlfriend, whom he had just broken up wit, after staying together. One night as he wonders about he comes to a strip club, where he meets the stripper/prostitute Noura. (Played by Mati Diop.) Simon quickly falls in love with Noura and finds it difficult to spend time away from her and becomes jealous of the fact that she has to sleep with other men for her job. So to try and fix the situation he proposes that she should black mail one of the married men that come for her services. She reluctantly accepts, and they start their working on their trap, needless to say things do not go according to plan.Simon Killer is a very slow film, and sometimes it's pace works and other times it doesn't. Antonio Campos tries to lull you in with a slow hypnotic pace, working mainly through repetition and dream-like passage of time. The film does a good job of bringing you in with its pace, but unfortunately starts to lose its audience around the half way point. The film becomes very tedious with its repetition and we're not quite sure who we're supposed to be rooting for. The characters motivations become muddled and you're not sure what's going on or why. This works for some films, like Caché or The Virgin Suicides, but films like the ones previously mentioned always give the audience enough to peak there interest and make them want to figure out the rest of the film. Simon Killer doesn't ever do this, so most of the film ends up being pretty forgettable.But I should give credit where credit is due. First of all Bradley Corbet does a great job as the introverted Simon. He is able to create this character that just doesn't feel right, from the second we see him we can tell that something is just wrong. Antonio Campos also has some excellent camera work, for most of the scenes the camera is set almost completely still, and if there is movement it's typically a slow zoom in/out, or a slow pan to the left or right. The effect is something unnerving, and the cinematography in general is very similar to the cinematography in Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation. i.e. creates a sense of paranoia. Overall I'd say Simon Killer had some good ideas, they just need to be more developed. If you're into slow dark psychological films I'd say it's worth checking out.5.5/10
themissingpatient
Brady Corbet is Simon. Simon has just arrived in Paris, heart-broken over a recent break-up and uncertain about his future. After having sex with a prostitute he manipulates his way into a serious relationship with her. A relationship that involves drugs, blackmail, betrayal and weird sex.The less you know the better this memorizing masterpiece will be to experience for the first time. This is one sick and brilliant portrait of a sociopath made up of beautiful moving pictures set to an epic soundtrack. Antonio Campos has nailed it. Perfectly paced to place us in Simon's shoes, Simon Killer is horrifying eye and ear candy. It's slow and somewhat minimalistic but it's because of this that is seems all that more real. Therefore all that more frightening.
Marko Amnell
This is an interesting film directed by Antonio Campos about a young man from New York who has apparently just finished a degree in neuroscience (he turns out to be a liar, so this may not be true, and in the film's last line he says to a customs official that he studies French literature), and is spending a few weeks in Paris living in the apartment of a family friend. What starts out as a story about an American student in Paris about to start his tour around Europe gradually turns into something darker as Simon, the eponymous character, meets an attractive French prostitute in a hostess bar. Simon cunningly inveigles himself into her life and soon moves into her apartment. We are not yet sure whether Simon is just a slippery character or a full-blown grifter, but at this point the plot reminded me of Jim Thompson's novels so I was gratified to learn from one interview with Campos that Thompson was indeed one of the inspirations for the film. Simon then persuades Noura (the prostitute he met at the hostess bar) to blackmail her customers with his help. So far, this is a fairly common film noir plot, but this unusual movie has much more to offer. Brady Corbet's acting as Simon is very good, Antonio Campos employs interesting visual techniques and other innovative elements, and the movie has an outstanding soundtrack. Corbet does a good job of keeping us guessing about just who, and how sinister a character, Simon really is. Is he just a bright student who opportunistically turns to blackmail to finance his holiday in Paris, or is he a professional con man who is potentially violent and dangerous? The dark and sexual themes, stalking camera (hostile strangers lurk just around the corner in Pigalle or accost Simon as he tries to pick up Parisian girls on the street), and memorable pop music score, reminded me of Blue Velvet, and it had me wondering if Simon is closer to Jeffrey Beaumont or to Frank Booth. As the suspense builds and things become ever darker, I also began to compare the film to The Comfort of Strangers, another tale of sexual attraction, perversion, deception and violence on a holiday in a picturesque European city (a film that brought together Paul Schrader, Ian McEwan, Harold Pinter and Christopher Walken... what a team!) But I digress. Antonio Campos does some really interesting things visually in this film. For example, there are strange light effects both at the very beginning of the movie and again to separate different parts of the story, like section breaks (these are accompanied by haunting songs with lyrics such as "It takes a muscle to fall in love"). I was intrigued by these light effects and Campos explains in one interview that he tried to recreate the lights you see as you press against your closed eyes with your fingers. Campos created these effects by removing the lens from a certain type of camera and filming Christmas lights which thus left only the imprint of their colours. These light effects are particularly appropriate in the film as Simon's thesis work (if he wasn't lying) involved the connection between the brain and the eye. Other interesting aspects of the movie include the bilingual script and way language is used. Simon often pretends not to understand when another character says something in French, and uses this to his advantage in his deceptions and tricks. Simon also often communicates non-verbally by an odd assortment of grunts, whimpers and yelps. Campos says that Brady Corbet actually worked out a whole system for these sounds, one for "angry Simon," another for "sad Simon," another for "anxious Simon" and so on. If you like Jim Thompson, Blue Velvet and The Comfort of Strangers, Simon Killer just might be your cup of tea.
supadude2004
Within its first 5 minutes I could already sense that I was about to watch a masterful movie. For this is a most brilliant study of, and glimpse into, the life of a sociopath. At times, it is so 'fly on the wall', and so brilliantly acted, that I almost had to remind myself that this was fiction I was witnessing.It's written and directed by Antonio Campos, who is admittedly not so well known as a screenwriter, having written only one other feature length movie back in 2008; A fact which is moreover, and to my belief, a tragedy for Campos - because he has most certainly proved himself with this movie, to be an exceptional screenwriter. Simon Killer is, in other words, extremely underrated. Nonetheless, as for its direction, production, acting, screenplay and musical score - all come together in an all too rare, & near perfect, unison.But why is it underrated? Basically, people cannot and just won't 'like' this movie, precisely because sociopaths are nasty people who callously make the lives of everyone they contact, worse for knowing them. Accordingly, watching a movie about such a person, even one that is as interesting and accurate as Simon Killer, is not therefore a fun or enjoyable experience for any typical audience - at least in the sense that 'enjoyable' should bring a smile onto one's face. For this movie won't endear smiles at any point.Whereas DeNero's studied psychopath, in Taxi Driver, occasionally brought a wry smile to one's face, and was popularly received as a bit of a misunderstood 'anti-hero', Brady Corbet's Simon is not only always engaging as a character study, but he's always, also, all too steely manipulating, and disgustingly self absorbed. Frankly, of the many movies I've seen, I can think of no other movie, before this, which so realistically portrays how a sociopath engages with other people who pass through his life. And, as such, I cannot recommend this movie highly enough, particularly for those of you, who are analytically minded enough, so as to appreciate its utter brilliance. Again, I'm not promising that anyone will, or could possibly 'like' this movie. Rather, I believe a minority of others will deeply appreciate its very excellence.
