Chad

Undeadcow

Censor is a slick film with cool visuals paralleling film and reality. The sly history and political lampoon works well. There are times it is implausibly bleak, I double the UK censorship office is that dimmly lit and dark or that some many people in one room are side eyeing in unison, but Censor excells at projecting the sad guilt riddled emotions of the heroine onto the screen. I think it's a little on the nose with sarcasm about censorship. Overall it's strange and experimental enough that it stands out. I see it as a film about fantasy from people who dislike fantasy.

numbercrunch

I liked the premise of this film, but i think the film kinda goes off the rails in the third act.
5/10

Undeadcow

It does seem out of character for her; hard for them to balance her being a careful film censor and a reckless approval seeking guilt riddled fiend willing to bend reality for whatever self soothing she can get away with. The only way that makes sense is to see Censor in extreme stereotypes rather than realistic characterization.

Shack

This film has a fascinating premise and is well made, but as mentioned, goes off the rails a bit in the end. I appreciated the links between movies and reality that could have been explored more.. Agreed that the central character as set up becomes something quite different along the way, and I might have wished for a less extreme transformation. Still, liked the style of the film and the lead performance was strong.

jholmes

Yes, this was my issue with it. By the time she's hacking at people with an axe, it just seems to come out of nowhere. Or rather, since it's a horror movie, that's where they wanted to get to all along, but they didn't build her character in such a way that it made sense. It's like "well. this is a horror movie, so she needs to start chopping people up now".

I never got the sense, in the scenes where she's doing her job, that she was being corrupted by, or glorying in, the violence she was seeing. Or that she was becoming violent in small ways in her everyday life before she went gonzo. And the back story, where maybe she did something terrible to her sister, and has been in denial about it all these years, never quite gelled, maybe because they insisted on keeping it vague. When she kills the movie producer, it seems to come out of left field and we don't see it, as if she was unconscious during it and then he's just dead. I don't know. Somehow I just didn't buy the progression.

As you point out, maybe it's not mean to be seen as a realistic character, but, if so, it's too close to that edge. It's not abstract enough to *not* expect it to make sense, if that makes sense, lol.

I'm glad I viewed this, because it's been on my tbw list for over a year. I liked the historical throwback to the video nasties, the period touches, and the idea of it being about a censor. It just kind of missed the mark in the end. 2.5/5 for me.

Trevor

Understand the criticism, but think they did an ok job of showing her obsession with her sister, guilt over the amnesiac killer, and other factors leading her towards going off the rails crazy. Could have done better, but I sensed it coming.

clckworang

It was my first time viewing this one, and I liked it overall. I lean more toward what Trevor is saying. I think she had some long simmering guilt that really started bubbling over when her parents decided to declare her sister dead. There were hints at that dinner that there maybe moments of past manic behavior, so I don't think this came out of nowhere. It's just being faced with the finality of her sister's disappearance pushed her over the edge - or at least started it. The killing of the producer, which I thought was accidental - or maybe was just shown that way, further unhinged her.

I didn't think her being a censor was significant for desensitizing her to violence. I think it's more an example of how she tries to do the same thing in life that she does for films. She wants to remove the bad or take the story in a different direction than reality, but that's just not possible. Not showing it doesn't mean it's not there or didn't happen.

This is actually one of those cases where I feel much differently about the film a day later. I think I appreciate it more after letting it sit with me for a while.

Toddarino

I liked this well enough. In some ways it reminded me of 8mm.

Spiderbite

These are very close to my thoughts as well.

I loved the setting. It has been interesting learning about the whole history of the video nasties era in England in recent years through various books and documentaries. Since I didn't grow up there, I had no idea who difficult it was for many people to see various films or watching bootlegs of copies of copies of copies.

I thought the movie was well made, shot and cast. My issues were the same as many of you...the final act. It seemed that from the extremely over the top accidental death of the producer, the filmmakers didn't know which way they wanted to go with the story at that point.

They certainly didn't set up the main character to go completely off the rails as they portrayed her in final product though I did like the flashes of reality seeping into her conscious during the final few minutes. The look of horror on the "sister" and the parents' faces were great and I wish they had steered into that slightly more.

I would have vastly preferred several other ways they could have gone with the story. And if they just have to end it this way, they could have at least set her up to me more imbalanced with more flashes of conflictions between reality and her world much earlier on.

Anyway, still a nice choice and I enjoyed it even though it wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped.

My rating: ***1/2 out of *****