It has always struck me as odd why certain films are deemed worthy of praise while others are considered dreck not worthy of even a review. Carícies ranks as one of those "praise-worthy" arthouse films that gets airtime on such high calibre stations as Bravo and Showcase. But why?
A group of interlocking stories, connected by a character who interacts with a character from a previous story, fill out this two hour ramble of human misery.
Unless you've seen Carícies you would not begin to believe how low, morally, a film can sink. The film, quite literally, opens with a man violently assaulting his wife, then incredibly, it gets worse. Each little story is filled with one character physically or emotionally assaulting another character. And for no reason. The only real moment of reprieve from all this pain and anger comes when a man attempts to tell his ex-girlfriend about her hygiene problem. I admit I laughed but even that didn't feel right, it was at the characters expense. I felt like a bully after the scene had played itself out.
Carícies might be considered intelligent, artful cinema or whatever, but I'd rather watch Up The Creek any day. I'd much rather spend two hours in a sea of bad dialogue and silly humor rather than wallowing around in two hours of characters hurting each other for the sake of art.
