Abel

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🎙️ EPISODE 482: 06.06.22 I sound like a broken record at this point. I know. But I don't think I can keep doing this TRUE RANDOM thing. At least not once a week. The batting average for good T.R. films has gotten extremely low at this point and I am tired. At least we broke some ground with this one: it's the first DUTCH film reviewed on the site after almost 650 movies, so that's pretty cool. What isn't cool is this movie. It's a bizarre and stilted affair that, while having something of its own visual flair, is still a slog to get through. There's one scene that sums it up perfectly...

That's just weirdness for the sake of weirdness. Nothing that happens there — the intentional fall, the mother licking — is expanded on in any meaningful way. This is a black comedy that isn't ever funny nor does it ever fully embrace its subversive undertones. This guy, Alex van Warmerdam, would go onto make a bunch of other movies as writer-director-actor and at least it's a name I won't be adding to my long list of filmmakers to check out. Who has the time. (Those minature sets were cool-looking, though — basically why this didn't get a 1)

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 481I - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 483 ⫸

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Abel is a 1986 Dutch film directed by Alex van Warmerdam who also scripted and played the lead character. Other lead roles were played by Henri Garcin, Annet Malherbe and Olga Zuiderhoek. Supporting roles were played by Loes Luca and Arend Jan Heerma van Voss among others. Its music was written by Vincent van Waterdam and the film was distributed by First Floor Features. It was released on February 27, 1986.