Flowers; A Disgusting Beauty
Flowers; A Disgusting Beauty
There is not a single person in my life to whom I would recommend this movie. It is dark. It is violent. It lacks the comfort of narrative norms to sugar coat the pure gore that graces the screen. Under no circumstances is this art piece for the faint of heart. I absolutely adored it.
Flowers succeeds where many other movies have failed. The visuals are gruesome from start to finish, holding nothing back from the audience. This is paired with a minimalistic style of storytelling. The film lacks dialogue and most traditional forms of structure. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the pairing of these two elements used to such a profound effect. Where you may expect vulgarity and violence for the sake of violence, you are treated instead to something that is both raw and unsettling.
I find it difficult to talk about the plot of the film — just as I find it difficult to call Flowers a film. I consider it more of an art piece than a traditional movie, one where the audience is invited to take their own meaning from what they are seeing on screen. Like all art, I think this piece is what you make of it. This is not to say that the movie is without plot, just that what you’re seeing is open to interpretation.
For that reason I will be forever grateful that the description of the movie gives very little away. In that spirit I will be avoiding all spoilers.
What I want to talk about most are the visuals, in any case.
The opening shot of the movie is vague and out of focus. It’s dark, grimy, and challenging to make out what’s happening at first. There are a few other shots like this, and I found them to be unsettling and tense. You don’t know if the vision is going to clear up, or what you’ll be seeing when it does.
More often than not, what comes into focus is something that will churn your stomach. I love that the director held nothing back in the way of gore. The practical effects maintained a perfect balance for me between stylized for the aesthetic and realistically disgusting.
Flowers is not for everyone. As I said in the opening for this review, I don’t know anyone in my life who would have appreciated this piece as much as I did. The gore is a big part of that divide. I am someone who has never minded on-screen violence to illustrate a point, but what you see in this film borders on the violence being the point. It was a technique that made me feel nothing but sympathy for the women suffering, and it reached a sweet spot of horror in my mind that few directors have tapped into. I will be upfront in saying I don’t believe that’s the experience everyone would have.
There are a few other potential deterrents. The two things that stuck out to me in way of content warning were the sexual violence and the necrophilia.
If you’re not sensitive to those topics, and don’t mind a healthy dose of disgusting with your art, then I would actually recommend Flowers to the curious among you. If you approach it with an open mind, you may find yourself having an utterly unique experience. I doubt any two viewers will have the exact same journey with this piece, which is a beautiful quality of art.
Review by Cat Voleur
Twitter: @Cat_Voleur
