Dusk (2010)

The original Dutch title "Schemer" literally translates itself in English as either "Dusk" or "Twilight", but I suppose the producers righteously and determinately decided not to opt for "Twilight" as the international title in order to avoid confusion and/or association with that horrible teenage-vampire franchise hype. Good for them! "Dusk" is an intriguing and rather harrowing coming-of age drama/thriller, based on a factual murder case as it occurred in The Netherlands in 2003. It's also the type of film that simply had to be based on a true story, otherwise skeptical viewers would immediately start claiming the screenplay is implausible, far-fetched and unrealistic. The events describe the murder of 15-year-old Jessie, everything from the circumstances leading to her murder, the actual crime itself and a brief impression of the painful aftermath. We're introduced to a circle of six (supposedly) close friends, adolescents and classmates, each and every single one of them struggling with personal issues, secrets and demons. At a certain point all of their anger and oppressed frustration is aimed at one person, Jessie, and – mainly under the influence of group leader Ceasar – the five others decide their lives would be much better if Jessie was death. They carry out their plan, although some of them choose not to participate actively, without realizing the horrible impact of the crime until afterwards. Particularly disturbing in the murder case illustrated in "Dusk" is the adolescents' inability to put all their banal little misfortunes and grievances (like jealousy, boyfriend rivalry and forbidden love) into perspective and so easily consider murder as the magical solution to everything. Their conversations about abruptly ending the life of a fellow human being are so natural it quickly becomes deeply discomforting. The vile act itself is executed in a truly cold and vexing fashion as well. In spite of the ugly subject matter, "Dusk" is a very stylish and serene film. The young and relatively unknown cast and crew thankfully chose for atmosphere over sensation, and thus the film patiently takes the time to introduce its characters and even works with different narrative angles to cover some of the same sequences. This narrative structure is well-handles and often gives useful additional insight in the facts as they occurred. Last but not least, tons of respect for the young ensemble cast and director Hanro Smitsman. This certainly isn't conventional Dutch cinema, but the acting performances and directing are outstanding. Very much recommended!

Seeing this psychological thriller/drama thriller from the Netherlands made me reflect over my own high school years. There are some scenes that I've recognize and people that I have known or even passed in hallways during my time in high school, had that kind of behaviour displayed in this film.It is about a group of teenagers that seem like the best of friends on the outside but in reality there is a conflict simmering underneath the surface.The group consists of alpha male and leader Caesar(Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen) who is taking care of his ailing mother. A tough job for anyone, especially for young teenager. But Caesar has issues, issues he can't talk to anyone about, not even his girlfriend Ilse.Mick(Robert de Hoog)is Caesars best friend, doing normal male bonding like teaching Caesar how to drive, partying etc. But Mick seems to have a secrets of his own, something he can't talk about to Caesar.Rico(Gerson Oratmangoen) is the clown and also the womanizer of the group. Even though he has girlfriend Frauk, he hasn't stopped chasing after other women. And with so many girls showing an interest could Frauk trust him? Frauk(Melody Klaver) is constant jealous and weary over Ricos behaviour. Could one of her best friend be having an affair with Rico?Jessie(Gaite Jansen) is confident and beautiful, has an uncanny ability to spot peoples flaws. But does she have flaws of herself? She also the one who creates a lot of tension within group. Slowly but surely this will have tragic consequences...Ilse(Roos Netjes) is Jessies best friend and doesn't know how to deal with Jessies conniving personality, intrigues and lies. But what if Jessie is telling truth? The acting from this group is superb, as a viewer I felt more like I was watching a documentary about highschool then an dramathriller.But that makes me a little bit sad too, because some of the stuff said and done in this film has happen in front my eyes. Maybe not with such a tragic ending but I've seen them and I think most people have, no matter where you live.Granted, I don't speak dutch, nor have ever been in the Netherlands but the script, dialogue feels more realistic then every episode of any US produced teen TV-drama.So future viewers that liked Mean Creek (2004), Dare mo shiranai/Nobody Knows (2004), Rebel Without a Cause (1955) should definitely watch this underrated and sadly neglected film. It deserves more votes/viewers then it has received here on IMDb.

There's not much to say about this film other than that the best one can do is to stay as far away from it as one possibly can! This film is extremely, utterly boring. Nothing happens. The dialogue is virtually non-existing, unintelligent, uninteresting and forced. The characters are dull and colorless. They are as interesting as a blank sheet of paper. The film revolves around six young mediocrities who apparently are best friends. None of them are particularly intelligent. One will not find a future notionalist among these kids. They spend their days speaking ill and stab each other in the back,figuratively speaking, and manipulating each other. It is quite incomprehensible that the film has been given such high rating! The only logical explanation must be that, in one way or another, the voters are people involved in the making of the film. Do not watch this piece of trash! AVOID! AVOID! AVOID!

This movie was partly shot on my high-school, and, having been an extra in it, I was of course looking forward to seeing it. Knowing what the story was about, and prepared for what would probably be a vehement cinema visit, I went to see it with some friends.If I would have to choose one word to describe this film, it would be Wow. I believe this film is able to take away all the skepticism we see in opinions on Dutch movies. This movie is raw, it is honest, and, like my summary above says, above-board. The killing scene is very shocking, it actually affected me physically; my heart was pounding, I almost couldn't believe what I saw. I've only had that with a couple of movies in my life (including "Black Swan" and I believe "Titanic" as well). Man, this is so good...the acting is wonderful on nearly every point of the movie. Having in mind that we're speaking of actors aged 17-21, I feel a lot of admiration for what they've achieved with this film (especially when I realise I wasn't quite a fan of two of them beforehand). Gaite Jansen again proves herself a big acting talent, and I think we can be very proud of having such a beautiful and gifted girl among our Dutch movie stars.One might think: if you loved it so much, why not rate it 10? Well, I rarely ever rate 10, and I didn't do it here, because of a few reasons: at a few points, the dialogues were beside the mark. The director and actors specifically said they wanted to show how such "normal" teenagers like those in the movie can perform such a cruel deed, but for me, the dialogues felt uncomfortable at some points...it seemed to be too jerky, though I won't deny that might also be part of the mechanism this movie wants to show its viewers...the scapegoat mechanism, the story of a group of friends which such derails that a horrific crime is performed.Don't watch this movie if you can't stand shocking images. Like I wrote, this movie is above-board; the killing of Jessie and the liquidating of her body is an 8-minute scene in the movie. Also, the showing of Jessie's inanimate and corrupting body makes one swallow twice. Do watch it if you like good movies, and if you are prepared and willing to let go of your possible sceptical view on Dutch movies. This one's different than quite a lot of the other ones made before.