Ex Drummer (2007)

I have rated 755 films on IMDb; I've watched many more, I suspect. Finally, a film has caused me to write a review out of pure respect to the creators.If you like:surreal cinema, extreme violence, dark humour, transitions from guilty laughs to gut-wrenching, sickening imagery, thought-provoking intelligent drama which superficially looks and sounds unintelligentthen you may well feel the same about this film as I do.Quentin Tarantino is one of my all-time idols. If he had made this film the world would have raved about it.

To begin, I've always loved mind-bending and thought provoking movies (Salo, Enter the Void, Donnie Darko, Eraserhead, Pink Flamingos *haha John Waters isn't really "thought-provoking" but hey!* :P) I've been on a disturbing film kick and trying to see all of the "best" out there that I've missed- which is not many. A Serbian Film and Irreversible have been the past 2 nights features (which I enjoyed very much! Especially Irreversible)- so with all the recommendations, I decided to see Ex- Drummer. Of the 104 minutes...I'd only ask for about 80 of them back, but I WOULD ask for them back. I love foreign films and have no problem following the subtitles and getting the storyline, but this one just fell flatter than a sheet of paper for me. The "Mongoloid" song was stuck in my head admittedly. But during the last 20 minutes (by this point all my friends but one had left saying this film made no sense and they couldn't follow the plot), I found myself saying that if they just made the last moments into some bizarre heavy metal music video or something- I would have enjoyed it and found it to be very artistically pleasing. When Dries goes out on his destructive rampage and the music was playing, that's when I was finally INTO the film...sadly, it came way after I could appreciate anything. I really wanted to like this film, having heard such good things about it. I've also heard there is a book, which may be something I would enjoy more (sometimes the translation from book to film loses those little details that make the plot). I'm not giving up on this film- and perhaps would try it again sometime alone where I could really focus and check for something I've missed. But gosh, from what I experienced last night this movie just SUCKED. Really. For the first time in a long time, I'm very disappointed.

It's always a pleasure for me just to see a film that's not coming from Hollywood and does not follow a standard scheme in either look or story. And hell yes - this film is different! Very bizarre and dives far deeper into the s--t than Hollywood would allow. But does that make the movie any good? Not for me.I don't think there are spoilers here but who knows ...The movie starts with a couple of "handicapped" guys who show up at the house of the protagonist. They are in search for a drummer to join their rock band and participate at a rock festival. The main character is a drummer and also a famous writer. He is not interested in punk music or the drums too much ... the reason he teams up with the guys is because he wants to see the extremely bad conditions they live in. These conditions couldn't be any worse. All of them live in extremely dirty run down houses. They struggle with drug addiction and other obsessions like one of them seems to be addicted to sex and at least makes the impression he could be a rapist or something. There is not too much depth to the story. It's pretty loose as we basically see the guys hanging around and sometimes preparing for the final rock show. Our drummer is always watching from a very distance. He never offers help to the poor guys rather treating them with disrespect. It seems like the only purpose to see them suffering is to feel better himself when he returns home.The movie also deals with senseless gimmicks to make the film even stranger. For example the first scenes that are completely running backwards for no reason.While I am into punk rock I didn't even like the music.When we come to a bloody ending the film tries to make some meaningful statements that for me come out of nowhere and are not build on the content (cheap content anyway) of the picture before.I really tried to believe there was more to this film - (maybe there is?) but at least I couldn't find it.3.5/10

"Ex Drummer" is the first (at least, to my knowledge) adaptation of a novel written by Herman Brusselmans. That name might not ring many bells on a worldwide basis, but over here in our small and beloved Belgium country, he's an infamous and hugely eccentric media figure. Brusselmans could be described best as an Artistic Anarchist, in appearance as well as in behavior and ideals. His face looks like it's under a permanent influence of drugs, he probably hasn't cut or washed his hair since the late 60's and when he's attending a TV talk or game show he usually ends up insulting the host and the audience. Just in case you're interested in having a friendly chat with Brusselmans, look for the darkest and most rancid bars in the Flemish part of Belgium and you'll probably find him there, sitting within a cloud of cigarette smoke and behind a bunch of emptied beer bottles. Needless to say Brusselmans' books are as extraordinary as the author himself; meaning rather rather low on substance and narrative structure but very rich on provocative statements, politically incorrect opinions and controversial themes. The novel "Ex Drummer", and consequently the film as well, is actually just a relentless observation of Belgian society, through the eyes of a cynical self-acclaimed intellect, which spares absolutely nothing or nobody. Anyone who watches this film will presumably find something that personally offends him/her, as the script mocks homosexuals, handicapped persons (physically as well as mentally), people of lower social classes, immigrants, musicians, politicians, feminists and actually just men & women in general. The main storyline revolves on three losers living in Ostend, a popular Belgian city by the coast. They want to form a rock band to participate in a local talent contest, but they haven't got a drummer yet and therefore approach Dries, who's the narrator and sort of represents the semi-biographical version of Herman Brusselmans himself. The band's singer is a hyperactive misogynist who beats up women for entertainment and only finds affection in the arms of the bald and elderly mother of one of the other band members, the bass player is gay and keeps his sickly father tied down in his bedroom and the deaf & aggressive guitarist totally neglects his one-year-old daughter but blames his stoned wife when she eats the content of her own diaper and dies. If you think these characters are demented, just wait until you meet some of the supportive ones! One of the band's competitors is appropriately named 'big cock' and he proudly demonstrates the impact of his enormous manhood by forcing his wife to show off her ruined vagina. The gay roadies enjoy spreading AIDS through unsafe sex and at one point (the highlight?) the film even glorifies pedophilia and incest, as there's a young woman on the constant lookout for a man who can give her the same sexual satisfaction her father did when she was six years old. So… in case all this sound controversial enough for you, welcome to Belgium!"Ex Drummer" isn't the best but definitely one of the most unique films I've ever seen. If I really must compare this movie to others, I'd say combine the shocking themes & trashy filming styles of "Irreversible", "Trainspotting", "Kids", "Ken Park" and "The Doom Generation". Then, multiply the result by ten and you can form yourself an idea of the shock 'n trash level featuring in "Ex Drummer". Of course, if you put it like that, it doesn't sound like the most accessible film and it certainly won't increase tourism for Belgium any time soon, but rest assured "Ex Drummer" is also a tremendously fun and amusing picture! Especially if you don't have any morals or don't care too much about human emotions, the dialogs and monologues are often laugh-out-loud funny and ingenious. The swearing and insulting becomes even more hysterical since every character talks in his/her own personal dialect and doesn't hesitate to emphasize his/her opinions by showing off intimate body parts. Near the end the film even more becomes a true & genuine exploitation flick, with bloody splatter and gory massacres. Purely talking from a more technical point of view, "Ex Drummer" naturally isn't your average by-the-numbers cinematic accomplishment, neither. The cinematography and editing are extremely chaotic and even the calmest human beings will get nervous from seeing some of the visual camera-tricks featuring in this movie, like entire sequences shot backwards and characters that almost exclusively appear on the screen upside-down. Like a friend of mine appropriately said, watching "Ex Drummer" must have the same effect as licking a poisonous toad and experience a nearly two hours lasting acid-trip. Director Koen Mortier obviously worships novelist Herman Brusselmans and blindly processes his writing style into the film without adding too much of his own trademarks. Not that it's really necessary to add anything, as the film is already hectic enough as it is. Considering it's fundamentally a movie about a rock band, the film has a heavy soundtrack (Mongoloid! Mongoloid!) and very rough sound effects. Don't even think about watching it if you're already suffering from a headache or migraine. Here's the hoping the film soon becomes available for trash-lovers and sick cinema puppies all around the globe. If not, move to Belgium and witness for yourself how messed up we are.