Julia (2015)
Starring Ashley C. Williams, Tahnya Tozzi, Jack Noseworthy
Directed by Matthew A. Brown
From first-time director Matthew A. Brown comes a rape-revenge thriller that certainly looks like some other memorable vindictive chick movies, a la I Spit on Your Grave and Ms. 45, but manages to take on a life of its own and definitely has the junk to make the fellas shift in their seats when that sweet payback is doled out. Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to your hostess for the evening: Julia.
Ashley C. Williams plays the lead role, and she’s come quite a ways since being attached to the ass-end of Akihiro Kitamura in The Human Centipede – as a matter of fact, she’s fairly pissed off and isn’t looking for anyone’s approval in this one! Her character is quiet and reserved to start off, and after suffering a brutal rape from three scumbags after supposedly meeting up with a date, she’s left for dead and presumably out of the picture.
After dragging herself back to her own place, a transformation takes place – that of a woman who seeks therapy, and I’m not talking about a rape support group. Her situation draws her to Dr. Sgundud (Noseworthy), a mysterious physician whose plan for healing begins with brutal acts of violence against those who’ve wronged her – sounds intense, doesn’t it?
So it’s not before long that we find Julia trawling the depths of the seediest watering holes in the search for her attackers, and what starts out as simple attacks upon hopelessly horny drunks steadily declines into gory castrations and MANY guys either closing their eyes during said scenes or fast-forwarding past these schlong slicings (I even found myself wincing on more than one occasion). As each predator gets his comeuppance, Julia’s mindset begins to strengthen in one aspect and spiral downwards in others.
While some will praise the progression of the storyline, others will poke repeatedly at its loss of steam in the later half, and there is a fairly inane sidebar to the demented doc’s tale, but it really shouldn’t detract too heavily from a film that’s buoyed by a stellar performance from Williams. With a minimal amount of dialogue she conveys her innocence in the film’s opening scenes and expertly slides over towards the confident, revenge-driven heroine in the later acts.
Dimly-lit scenes are aplenty to enhance the movie’s grittiness, and the entire presentation is one big sleazy, slimy, anti-romance flick if there ever were one. Brown should be praised for throwing this film out there and depicting such brutality in a light that champions retribution, but he also warns of its effects on the fragile mind, especially after such a heinous crime has been committed. Highly recommended.
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Film
Categorized:News
