Cowards Bend the Knee
Director: Guy Maddin
Year Released: 2003
Rating: 3.5
Maddin does soap opera: sex, murder, intrigue, botched hand operations, eerie apparitions, Oedipal conflict, anal buzzers and ... an ice breast? Hilarious lunacy that runs full blast for one full hour, churning out scene after scene of postmodern hi-jinks and out-of-control hysteria. This time, the technical aspects and the story both work - some of his past films had more of an emphasis on appearance than content - as a ice hockey player kills and fornicates at will, controlled by a lunatic femme fatale and worshiping the Hockey Hall of Fame wax figures (but are still alive and require feeding). Cuts out at just the right time - had it ran longer, ennui may have set in.
