Men & Chicken/Mænd & Høns (2015) - Jensen scores with hilarious cinema bizarro original

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 + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year

 

Star Mads Mikkelsen, holding a chicken, next to a literal egghead on this poster for Anders Thomas Jensen's Men & Chicken

 

A pair of brothers receive from their recently deceased father a video, which explains that he wasn't their real father. On a small island in a decrepit sanatorium their actual closest relatives reside ...

 

Men & Chicken is written and directed by great Danish filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen (Flickering Lights/Blinkende Lygter (2000)). 

The year's undoubtedly strangest film is also Jensen's best to date (in my book), and certainly his most eccentric, which carries a real brilliance in it. Politically incorrect and shamelessly weird, we here spin around themes of brotherhood, the mysteries of biology and genetics, the absurdities of life, - and violence.

The film has a more or less auspicious framing device and an ending that is rather sudden, but its list of winning performances is long: David Dencik (Gentlemen & Gangsters (2016, miniseries)), Mads Mikkelsen (Bleeder (1999)), Bodil Jørgensen (Se min Kjole (2009)), Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Sprængfarlig Bombe (2006)), Nicolas Bro (Beast (2011)) and Søren Malling (Karlas Kabale (2007)) are all stark raving mad and absolutely wonderful in the film. It also has outstanding production design and an excellent score by Frans Bak (Albert (2015)) and Jeppe Kaas (That Time of Year/Den Tid på Året (2018)).

Men & Chicken is bizarro and quotable to an incredible extent; an absolute favorite.

 

Related posts:

Anders Thomas Jensen: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

The Salvation (2014) - Classic western yarn meets Danish dynamite (co-writer)
Love Is All You Need/Den Skaldede Frisør (2012) - Bier strikes gold with Italy-set romcom (co-writer)
In a Better World/Hævnen (2010) - Bier's Big Moral Drama lives on its actors' performances (co-writer)
Sprængfarlig Bombe (2006) - The two Jensens' satire is unrefined but hilarious (writer) 
Murk/Mørke (2005) or, Shutter Jutland (co-writer)

The Green Butchers/De Grønne Slagtere (2003) - Great performances in Jensen's hilarious morbid comedy 
Open Hearts/Elsker Dig for Evigt (2002) - Bier's excruciating Dogme chamber drama (writer)

Grev Axel (2001) - Frödin and Gråbøl pull laughter from 18th century-set crazy-comedy (writer) 

The King Is Alive (2000) - Levring's trying desert theatrics (co-writer) 

 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here 

 

Cost: Reportedly 36 mil. DKK, approximately 5.66 mil. $

Box office: 4.7 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.83 times its cost)

[Men & Chicken was released 5 February (Denmark) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place in Funen, Denmark, and in Germany. The film opened #79 to a 2k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #43 and in 11 theaters (different weeks) and grossed a measly 30k $ (0.6 % of the total gross). The film was a hit in its main production country Denmark, where it scored Jensen's biggest opening weekend yet and became the year's 2nd highest-grossing local film, selling 351,632 tickets, behind Klovn Forever, coming to 4.3 mil. $ (91.5 %). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 245k $ (5.2 %) and the Netherlands with 113k $ (2.4 %). The film won 3/10 Robert awards (Denmark's Oscar). Jensen returns with Retfærdighedens Ryttere (2020). Mikkelsen returned in Rihanna: Bitch Better Have My Money (2015, music video), Hannibal (2013-15) and theatrically in Doctor Strange (2016); Dencik in Kidnapping Mr. Heineken (2015). Men & Chicken is certified fresh at 83 % with a 6.81/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Men & Chicken?

Splice (2009) - A poor script bogs down good performances, effects

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The evocative creature design of the first spliced human creates chills on this poster for Vincenzo Natali's Splice

Two of the world's most eminent scientists in the field of genetical splicing are also a couple who are tired of making ugly animal clones, and so now they are mixing some human DNA into their latest attempt ...

Splice is written by Antoinette Terry Bryant (I Can See You (2014, short)), Doug Taylor (The Carpenter (1988)) and co-writer/director Vincenzo Natali (Cube (1997)).
Sarah Polley (Guinevere (1999)) and Adrien Brody (Love the Hard Way (2001)) are both capable and each do their best here. Splice has its root in The Fly (mostly David Cronenberg's 1986 version) and its kind of sci-fi-horror; but its stars cannot act their way out of a story that gets too obscure and unlikely. The script is not particularly inventive, and that is the main problem for the gross Splice, which has terrific practical and digital effects.
The relationship between the two scientist leads never becomes important or exciting enough for us to really jump on the film's wagon.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 26.8 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.89 times its cost)
[Splice premiered 6 October (Sitges International Festival of Fantastic and Horror Cinema, Spain) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place in Ontario, including Toronto, from December 2007 - February 2008. The film opened #8 to a 7.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, its peak there, where it grossed 17 mil. $ (63.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.4 mil. $ (5.2 %) and Russia with 1.3 mil. $ (4.9 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Natali returned with Haunter (2013). Brody returned with a voice performance in Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and physically in High School (2010); Polley in Trigger (2010), her last film to date as actress, before she turned to writing and directing instead. Splice is certified fresh at 76 % with a 6.62/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Splice?

The Cat O'Nine Tails/Il Gatto a Nove Code (1971) - Argento's solid genetics-themed giallo murder puzzle

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The content-heavy, splashy American poster for Dario Argento's The Cat O'Nine Tails pitched the film against Alfred Hitchcock's hit Psycho (1960), a very different film

A string of murders revolve around a genetics research company in Rome, where scientists believe they have found the gene for a violent disposition. A well-informed reporter pairs up with a blind man, who likes to solve puzzles, to try to get to the bottom of the affair.

 

The Cat O'Nine Tails is written by Bryan Edgar Wallace (Inspector Hornleigh (1939)) and Italian master filmmaker, co-writer/director Dario Argento (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage/L'uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970)), whose second film it was. Luigi Cozzi (Devil Fish (1984)) and Dardano Sacchetti (Turbo (2000, TV-series)) contributed story elements. It is the 2nd in Argento's Animal trilogy that starts with The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970) and ends with Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971).
It is not as thrillingly fresh and perfectly paced or achieved as Bird with the Crystal Plumage, but it is still a solid giallo crime thriller puzzle.

James Franciscus (Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)) and Karl Malden (A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) are the two American stars: Franciscus is charismatic and intriguing as the reporter, and Malden gives his character a good amount of suspiciousness, and also plays blind to an ace.

The title's 'nine tails' refer not to a whip or a real cat, but to the puzzle, which has no less than 9 suspects. As in any good giallo, several characters seem suspicious and have motives for being the killer, and it is fun to try to guess who the killer really is while basically not having a clue. The film is also peppered with some pretty horrific murder scenes, (a trademark of Argento's), and revels much more in its violence and death than Psycho (1960), which it was compared to in its US marketing campaign, (see poster above). The subjectively shot murder scenes incorporate extreme close-ups of the killer's retina, which is an uncanny motif that also deftly lends extra suspicion to at least two characters in the film.
Ennio Morricone (In the Line of Fire (1993)) has composed a nerve-wrecking score. (One of the compositions, Paranoia Prima, was re-used by Quentin Tarantino in his excellent Grindhouse homage Death Proof (2007), and you can see and hear why, when you watch Cat O'Nine Tails.)
Somewhat too late into the film, humor is introduced, - and it is appreciated, because the atmosphere, characters, and Morricone's score are all anxiety-provoking almost to a point of feeling oppressive. SPOILER One of the best scenes in the films is morbidly humorous and takes place in a barber's salon. (Hitchcock would almost certainly have loved this scene, if he saw the film, which he may have done.) There are other good scenes in a gay club, a grave yard at night (of course) and by a train station.

The eeriness of this thriller comes partly from its visuals, and partly from its plot; just about everyone is potentially a bestial killer; and not only that, but it's in that person's blood, in his - or her's - DNA, a seemingly inevitable end destination for the wretched sinner.
The identity of the killer shall, of course, not be revealed here, SPOILER only I will add that the film ends with Argento's keenness for the abrupt and cinematically impressive in a series of awesome elevator shaft shots.
While this is a solid thriller, it is not carried out with as much care or enthusiasm as Argento's debut, one detects.

 

Related posts:

Dario Argento: The Phantom of the Opera/Il Fantasma dell'Opera (1998) - Argento's Leroux adaptation is a kicker mostly for stout fans 

Demons/Dèmoni (1985) or, Cinema of Death! (co-writer/producer)

Inferno (1980) - Argento's satanic New York-set nightmare masterpiece 

Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death! (co-composer)

The Cat O'Nine Tails/Il Gatto a Nove Code (1971) - Solid genetics-themed giallo murder puzzle

Documentary about Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror (2002) - Bio. doc. of Dario Argento 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: Estimated 1 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 2.4 bil. Italian Lira
= Uncertain but likely at least a box office success

[The Cat O'Nine Tails premiered 12 February (Milan, Italy) and runs 112 minutes. Shooting took place from September - October 1970 in Italy, including in Rome, and in Berlin, Germany. The film was reportedly a hit in Italy, where it grossed 2.4 bil. Lira, the equivalence of which in $ is regrettably hard to ascertain. It was reportedly unsuccessful elsewhere in Europe but acclaimed in North America, where it started screening in May and June to unknown gross numbers. Argento returned with Four Flies on Grey Velvet/4 Mosche di Velluto Grigio (1971). Franciscus returned in 11 TV and animated credits prior to his theatrical return in The Amazing Dobermans (1976); Malden in Wild Rovers (1971); and Catherine Spaak (Alice (2010)) in The Boxer/Un Uomo dalla Pelle Dura (1972). The Cat O'Nine Tails is fresh at 81 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Cat O'Nine Tails?