Chico conoce a chica

A few days ago I received this film in the mail,and I must admit that I was expecting this to be something special,at least according to reviews that have praised this as something dark and unsettling.Well,I can tell you that's not the case at all,I'm afraid to say.First of all;I'm well aware of the fact that this is director Ray Brady's cinematic statement about the general portrayal of on screen violence.And I also realize that Brady had to choose an angle that didn't blur his message,meaning that he couldn't exactly revel in blood and gore.The result he would have got then,is that people would have perceived it as a sadistic gorefest,and ultimately failed in grasping his overall message.But then the question is;is it still possible to make it unsettling and dark,and at the same time let the message come across?Of course it is.Two examples that come to mind are "A Clockwork Orange",and "Man Bites Dog".Regarding the latter,it is stated on the cover that "Boy meets Girl" is "the English answer to Man Bites Dog".Well,sadly it is a far cry from this gem,and should not be compared at all!!My main objection to BMG is that the whole affair comes off as a amateurish attempt to make the viewers emphathize with the victim,and perhaps also with the perpetrator.My point is that this isn't accomplished at all,this mainly due to the apparent lack of really convincing actors,lack of top-notch dialogue,and the lack of realism that is acquired in order to make it look like a snuffpiece.To sum up;I have not watched a horrifying and unsettling film which is shaking one's foundation,I have instead watched a first-year's film student's idea of a innocent,masochistic wet dream.Mediocre at best.Definitely hardly anything that's worth banning,that's for sure!!Oh so many squeamish people out there,the reviews this one has got is a crystalclear proof of that!!

Watching this savage look at the inner psyche of a twisted mind makes you shiver with fear, but you remain hooked with morbid fascination. Ignoring societies barriers, the film takes you through a world of sadism and pain, stripping away the rational filters which everyday life shrouds us in. This is a truly uncompromising work - going far further than "The Collector" dared to go. This is not a fun film - but it should be seen by anyone who ever wonders how far the human mind can go. A truly unique and important work.

Without question the very worst British film I have ever seen, this had me questioning my rental choice from literally the first frame (a Nietzsche quote on a pink background that looks like it was knocked up on a Fisher Price "My First Computer").

A bunch of friends apparently pooled their student grants together to make a film (I listened to the first 5 minutes of the director's commentary) and the result was this. Honestly it would have been better spent on beer and pork scratchings.

A woman picks up a man at a bar, drugs him, and 1 minute into the film he's strapped to a chair and an 85-minute torture sequence begins. Sounds great, right? Well not if that torture consists of her yelling ridiculous feminist mumbo-jumbo at him and quoting from books.

A remarkable film in that the victim's plight is less painful than the audience's, Boy Meets Girl contains the worst actors outside of a Timothy Hines flick, and photography to match. Every two minutes there's a horribly ugly title card, and this grainy mess of a film is broken up into little vignettes, most of which involve a new torture method. Things perk up when he gets his hand microwaved, but the big finale only excites because we know the film will soon be over.

Hopelessly inept in every conceivable way.

Being partly raised on horror movies, I thought I had seen it all. This is something comparable to Pasolinis SALO or the intense last half hour of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. Boy Meets Girl is far better than SALO though. It's interesting that one still can get really moved and affected by a movie after all I've seen through the years. It kind of feels like I'm a "newborn" movie viewer, and makes me believe in the power of the medium again. While I didn't really know what to think immediately after watching it, when a couple of days had gone by, I concluded that it really is an exceptional and important movie. When I watch violence in other movies now, it feels too slick, glamourizing and "movie-stylized", while in this film one gets a gut wrenching feeling of what violence is like for real. That's due to Brady's technical brilliance, the unflinching long takes, merciless sound design (during the drug trip sequence) and believable performances. Seeing a slow revenge for unnoticed/secret crimes is also a masterstroke (Phonebooth, a decade later, had a similar plot in that someone's being watching you and noting down your crimes and now they are going to make you pay). The revelation by merciless interrogation exposes acts of violent homophobia and racism, brought into context for what they ultimately are, sickening and ugly no matter what motives lie behind them. One can argue about the excessive use of profanity being unnecessary but that is one of the films target points "they are only words" and in an 18 cert film safely used, but it is more like the whole film is an expressionistic nightmare like The Cabinet of Dr Caligari than reality normal anyway. The incessant drone on the soundtrack also signals a kind of journey into dangerous and uncharted territory of the human mind. The effective use of clever camera fading and fade up techniques, invisible cuts and so forth, makes me think that it is now possible for someone to actually make the movies Anthony Burgess predicted in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, which are shown to Alex during his brainwashing. Scenes of ultra-violence filmed in long, sickening single takes, and one of the few passages in literature, which I find profoundly disturbing. Ultimately I must recommend this movie for everyone, but be prepared to be upset and shocked.

One of the many things I love about DVD, as a medium, is the way that so many wonderful films that never got the video release they so richly deserved have being unearthed from the vaults and unleashed on the viewing public - usually a public that can't even remember them from the first time round at that.

One such forgotten gem is Ray Brady's "Boy Meets Girl" (1994, UK) which although responsible for huge amounts of controversy upon its theatrical release (BBFC not liking its subject matter, for some reason!), never seems to get mentioned by many folk any more. Luckily, after being banned on video in the UK since its inception, it got a nicely put-together R2 DVD release in 2002 so now there's no excuse for having not seen this terrifying slice of thought-provoking brutality...

The film begins, as the title suggests, when Boy Meets Girl in that all-too-familiar setting of a divey little bar somewhere. Girl is French, quite the 'randy little tart' it seems, so Boy thinks he's struck lucky, especially when she takes him back to her flat, plies him with wine and asks if he'd like to watch some porn with her. It's all very exciting but after a glass of wine he starts to feel a bit woozy and ... oops! Quicker than you can say "she drugged your drink, dude!", Boy wakes up to find he is in a small room with black walls, strapped into a dentist's chair. Girl is not actually French at all. She's also not particularly nice either. Bad things ensue. VERY bad things... and she wants to film it all.

I'd love to tell you more, because the way I've put it probably makes it sound like one of the "Guinea Pig" films (which it's quite a far cry from!), but I also don't want to spoil the plot for you. I WILL however go as far as to say, the entire thing takes place in the black room with minimal cast members (which all lends it quite a 'theatrical' feel), so major cred points distributed all round for creating such a continuously tense and edgy atmosphere that keeps you guessing and utterly engrossed right up until the final few grotesque scenes.

There are so many things in this deeply unusual film's favour that enable it to be so effective. The direction, despite an obvious shoestring budget, manages to be stylish and taut, using camera trickery and plot-contextual switching between film and video to keep things looking lively. The acting is surprisingly strong, considering the relative obscurity of the cast members. Danielle Sanderson (sadly never seen in anything else) is nothing short of unforgettable, playing her unstable character with a disarming mix of light and dark. One minute she's soothing, sensual, almost maternal and the next she's positively fearsome, spewing forth verbal bile with the maniacal savagery. It would be so easy for some of her dialogue to be delivered with a large side order of ham, but Sanderson makes her character believable through the intensity of her performance. I *really* wish she'd made other films. It's tragic to think of such an incredible talent being wasted.

Of course, what REALLY makes this movie is the razor-sharp script, unpredictable and surprisingly complexed as it is. On top of its constant heartfelt assaults on the (at the time very hot) topic of violence in media, it relishes in playing with your mind and your personal politics, when it comes to morality. The lines between good and evil, right and wrong, continually shift (along with the viewer's sympathies). It's almost disorientating, the way the characterisations manipulate perceptions of what's going on and, by the time the plot reaches its ferociously visceral climax, the impact is made all the greater, because you're being made to THINK about what's going on instead of just watching it through zombified, desensitised eyes.

"Boy Meets Girl" is one of the more genuinely disturbing films I've seen. Obviously being creeped out by the movies is a very subjective, personal thing but, like I say, this one definitely did it for me. The closest comparisons I could make would be to place it in a similar category to "Man Bites Dog" or "Audition". Fiercely original, darkly comic at times but ultimately very harrowing indeed.

Overall Rating: A no-budget 9.5 out of 10.