Simon (Brady Corbet) is a recent college graduate who has broken up with his girlfriend of five years and decided to travel to France to find himself. After a lot of looking at museums and walking around, he comes across a whore house and meets the sexy Victoria (Mati Diop). After a few visits they decide to become an item but what secrets is he hiding from her?
The film doesn’t exactly answer this question, essentially appearing as a series of bland events before the not so shocking finale. Lets just say you don’t expect a film called Simon Killer to not end with him killing someone. Regardless of what the title may suggest this isn’t a serial killer movie. How screwed up Simon is is more hinted at than actually shown. The director clearly likes to hide details from the audience. In one of the special features he outlines how his films withhold material from the viewer, but there isn’t really enough here to hold your interest. Maybe if more time was spent showing than suggesting that things are going on than this could have been a good film.
Corbet doesn’t do much to keep you interested in his character, who is essentially an emotional blank slate. At the end of the film you don’t really have any sense of who Simon is or why he does the things he does. Throughout the film he compulsively lies, he cheats on his girlfriend; it’s suggested he did something bad that ended his old relationship and he makes himself totally dependent on the women he sleeps with. But we don’t know why or even what made him this way. Diop at least creates a warmer character and you can believe she truly loves Simon and gets swept up in his strangeness.
Antonio Campos’s style is at least different to what you will see in other films. Much of the first half is shot from an almost first person perspective, looking over the shoulder of the protagonist, allowing you to truly see what he sees. The use of music is quite good, featuring an exciting soundtrack which often exists within the scene, mainly through Simon’s iPod. Campos uses some quite strange camera angles at times, for instance in a scene of the couple dancing the camera lingers on a close-up of their waists whereas another director would mostly show them fully in long shot. It’s honestly just a frustrating way to shoot a movie, you want to see what’s going on outside of the frame but at the same time it doesn’t really compel you to watch on when you realise much of the film will be shot in this manner.
The extras found on the Blu-ray are quite expansive. These include three different interviews with the director, one also featuring the producers and another Brady Corbet and both their mothers. These provide a look into the production of the film, as well as Campos’s directing style. You also get a short film from Campos, The Last 15 which was nominated for a Palme d’Or. It’s a strange little family drama in which very little happens before a character attempts suicide.
Overall Verdict: An exploration of a strange character that doesn’t really get beneath his skin.
Special Features:
The Last 15 – Antonio Campos’s Palme d’Or nominated short film
Sundance Alumni interview with Antonio Campos and producers Sean Durkin and Josh Mond
The Case of the Conscious Camera
Conversations with moms
Original theatrical trailer
Reviewer: Matt Mallinson