The Last Circus (2011)

Beautifully rendered and splendidly unique. There is almost no way to fully describe it; but THE LAST CIRCUS is a love it or hate it movie. I loved it.The performances are top notch; the script is sharp; every scene is unpredictable, the way a high wire trapeze act is.Perhaps I'm generalizing too much, but I don't want to add even a specter of a spoiler. I grabs you from the first frame and never lets go. The director never tinkers with emotions, he plays them out grandly with a magnificent cast - like a juggler or a knife thrower. The circus itself is a perfect metaphor.Buy it see it, but with this caveat - the film is grotesque and quite gory, but not for exploitation. You're not being snookered. Buckle up for one of the greatest shows on earth.

Several years ago I watched "El dia de la bestia". I recall I had fun. Then with "Crimen Ferpecto" I laughed several times. I watched it so many times. Then it was "las brujas..." and I could not believe what I had just witnessed. Then I learned he had done this before - I just watched it. My god! This was a terrible mess. I don't know which one is worse.I bet Iglesia watched one night that clip of Rafael singing and thought "I should do something with clowns again! But creepy clowns! I need animals around! So I need maybe a circus...or a war? Maybe both! Who cares? BLOOD!!!!"I can't decide what's worst: the acting or the editing. The kid at the start, Alejandro Tejerias and even the leading lady...they are B.A.D.!Our director AND writer just needed blood and beautiful photography. If that's all you as audience need, there you go, this is your movie. If you need a good story or simply a story that makes sense, you will be fighting to remain sane.Things I wrote down while suffering with this: -SPOILERS AHEAD- They are hiding in the shower from the jealous lover inside the trailer, then it's another day, how did they manage to escape? The guy is deformed by the vet...but he has to go outside in a completely different place to see his new face again? When the guy is running from the pig, sometimes we see the animal and sometimes we don't...I guess there was not enough money. How much time has passed? What did the other guy do while the clown was hiding in the woods and the others left the circus? A single guy with a small gun can stop several soldiers - soldiers that, by the way, can't shoot a damn thing! What was the point of having them there? Background noise from their bullets? What does Natalia want? Am I suppose to root for her? If she could run even with clown shoes, why didn't she do it sooner? Everybody is awful! Nobody reacts when a shotgun is near them. The police went inside before him but he finds the couple first?? What was the point of wasting screen time with "Motorista-fantasma"? Why?

Great movie. Not for everyone. At the very beginning you will know what kind of movie you are going to watch. Very dramatic, funny and terrifying. Has every ingredient, but you will find it difficult to classify it in a genre. The story is not different from what you've probably seen before, what makes the difference is the way it is told. 10 points for the acting. You actually feel the changes every character has as the movie goes along. The music also flows great with the film in every way, and creates fantastic atmospheres in every moment. The editing may be the weakest thing of the film. Anyway, great. You don't get to watch a dark funny film very often...

Lately I tend to give every movie that I can't predict more favourable reviews than I should, but I really enjoyed this. My local video store clerks (at the stellar Eyesore Cinema in Toronto, Canada) tend to just hand me a movie to rent when I walk in, so I have no idea what I'm about to see until I get home and put it in my DVD player. Maybe they just know me there, but I thought this one was definitely something. It's strange how so many unlikable characters couldn't stop me from liking the film. I can understand why the film is so polarizing. I gets 1 star reviews and 5 star reviews. That's often the sign that a film is at very least memorable. Totally original, unpredictable, funny, odd, horrifying, cartoonish, very violent, and filled with characters few could relate to, yet ultimately it's all wholly watchable. The Last Circus is sort of like 5 films in one and crosses genres wildly, but it kept me entertained throughout, which is pretty much all I ask of a film.