Cheap Thrills (2013)

bodhrandude

Watched this with the brother in Scotland over the festive season, its doing the rounds at the moment on Sky Movies. A budget independent dark comedy, two guys, old school friends down in their luck meet up in a bar where they meet this millionaire and his wife, the millionaire embroils these guys into mad dares for easy cash. Absolutely hilarious and at the same time repulsive in some ways but morbidly fascinating or perhaps tragic, the lure of the dollar. Its really worth checking out, the lengths these guys go. The dog poo incident is one of these remarkable moments in cinema history where the ribs hurt from the laughs, Pat Healy puts in an amazing performance and David Koecher from Anchorman fame among others. Anyone see this?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2389182/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Goldstein

Great concept but I thought it strayed a tad too far from fun into gore for gore's sake tbh.

And what's with so many movies of late geting their jollies from killing dogs?
Seriously, FU©K that trend.

Here are my thoughts on the film

Cheap Thrills may not be a film familiar to most; it’s a low budget, shot in 14 days genre picture that, sadly, went direct to disc in most countries. As such, it’s easy to overlook it as you flip through the new releases but to ignore Cheap Thrills would mean depriving yourself of what is by far the best film of the past year. It’s a skillfully put together feature that’s thought provoking, deliciously dark and twisted and far smarter than it has any right to be. It’s a psychological roller coaster of a ride which invites you to peer into the rabbit hole of depravity before sucking you down and making you complicit in a number of unsavory and questionable actions.

Cheap Thrills tells the age old story of just how far an ordinary man will go in order to provide for his family. With an eviction notice posted to his door and his boss after letting him go, Craig decideds to drown his sorrows in a dive bar when he meets Vince, an old friend who he hasn’t seen in quite some time. As these two unlikely companions get reacquainted they make the acquaintance of Colin and his trophy wife Violet, a couple who aren’t afraid to splash the cash around. Colin and Violet are out celebrating Violet’s birthday and are looking for something a little less ordinary. It begins small, with Colin daring his new found friends to drink a shot quickly or slap a strippers ass, but as the night grows darker so do the deeds and events quickly spiral out of control.

As the night’s events take a turn for the darker, director E.L. Katz wonderfully deconstructs the American dream. In this world the rich use their wealth to exploit those without. The film works as a startling statement on how the working poor are little more than playthings to the rich. Cheap Thrills is at its heart a film about the class struggle and Katz uses it to make a number of bold statements about inequality in America as well as the plight of the working class. It’s refreshing to find a genre picture which has something to say beyond needless gratuitousness. It is thanks to the satirical streak which runs thorough the film that Cheap Thrills is just so damn entertaining.

The acting performances in Cheap Thrills are superb all around and, if the Oscars genuinely recognized all film and not just cookie cutter Hollywood fare, then both Ethan Embry and Pat Healy would be in serious consideration. Healy perfectly captures the desperation of a decent man who willingly gives up his innocence and humanity in order to do right by those he loves. There is a moment toward the end where Craig butchers himself for the sake of a few grand and Healy’s reaction is just mesmerizing; a masterclass in acting that is worth the price of admission alone. Vince is the much less sympathetic character but Embry is just exceptional in the role. He brings a quiet humanity and empathy to the character and, honestly, it’s hard to say just which performance is better. Both actors are absolutely brilliant and manage to effectively play a number of contradictory emotions at once.

Cheap Thrills is this year’s finest release; a mischievous, visceral, bloody, adult morality tale which wonderfully defies expectation and features a number of wonderful touches, most impressively of all the manner in which Katz plays with the colour palette as Craig and Vince sink deeper into depravity. Simply put, Cheap Thrills is by far the best release of 2014. It’s the rare film that perfectly walks the tightrope between horror and comedy and while it features gross, gratuitous gore, it never feels there simply for the sake of it. Cheap Thrills is just an exceptional piece of cinema and one that any serious film fan needs to track down.

Decuc500

I really enjoyed this. The final shot was fantastic, almost iconic.

Goldstein wrote: »

And what's with so many movies of late geting their jollies from killing dogs?
Seriously, FU©K that trend.

I hate this kind of stuff too. Thankfully it ain't real.
I've seen so many films recently, particularly foreign language films, that contain unsimulated animal cruelty. It's sick that this can be considered a part of art.

I've never understood this mentality where it's perfectly acceptable for a film to visit horrific and degrading acts on a person is perfectly but to do so to an animal is offensive. It really makes no sense

JohnFalstaff

A person can consent to participating in a film. An animal has no say in the matter.

JohnFalstaff

JohnFalstaff wrote: »

A person can consent to participating in a film. An animal has no say in the matter.

You do realise that they don't actually harm the animals, that models and FX work are used to simulate any actual harm.

JohnFalstaff

Decuc500 specifically refers to 'unsimulated animal cruelty' in his post.

Animals have been abused on film as far back as Edison's 'Electrocuting an Elephant' (1903). Horses have been killed onscreen in Westerns and War movies for the past 100 years.

Lots of admired directors have animals injured or killed onscreen in their films: Herzog, Coppola, Cimino. A complaint has been filed against Buri Bilge Ceylan for alleged animal cruelty in Winter Sleep. Even Tarkovsky wasn't averse to killing horses onscreen in the name of art.

So it's not always model work or FX... and even when it is, the animals are often put in harm's way. One of the tigers used during the making of Life of Pi was nearly drowned and the on set Animal Humane Association monitor hushed it up.

Goldstein

This is a personal view but I just think portraying animal cruelty is in poor taste, especially for comedic purposes. Another well known and otherwise excellent recent horror film was the same and it was in The Drop too. Enough already!

The number of films in which animals suffer is tiny, in fact it's almost unheard of in this day and age and as such there's no need for things like the BBFC insisting that old films from the 30s which contain horse trips be cut.

I also don't get how portraying cruelty to animals can be seen as poor taste yet having no issue with the same thing happen to human characters. As long as animals aren't being tortured and killed simply for entertainment hen I have no issue with any film or TV which involves the death of an animal, in fact one of my favorite films of last year Revenge for Jolly is all about two friends getting revenge for their dead dog. The death of the dog is one of the most touching and humane moments in cinema in quite some time.