Why Don’t You Just Die!, 2018.
Directed by Kirill Sokolov.
Starring Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Vitaliy Khaev, Evgeniya Kregzhde, Michael Gor, and Aleksandr Domogarov.
SYNOPSIS:
A cop and four other people find themselves in a violent and bloody standoff.
If the grindhouse-style title of Russian director Kirill Sokolov’s debut feature Why Don’t You Just Die! doesn’t fill you with anticipation for what you are in for then the immediacy of the stylish violence and cartoonish nature of the cinematography will as the opening few minutes of the movie sets you up for 100-or-so minutes of Looney Toons-meets-Quentin Tarantino set pieces, each one designed to be more absurd than the last.
The movie begins with a young man named Matvei (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) turning up at the door of bullish cop Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev) armed with a hammer and a story about child abuse from Andrey’s daughter Olya (Evgeniya Kregzhde). Andrey is immediately suspicious and after false pleasantries are exchanged we’re off as Andrey and Matvei go at each other like an extreme episode of Bottom as televisions are smashed over heads, bones get broken and then Andrey produces a double-barrelled shotgun. Add to that Andrey’s crooked partner turning up, a huge bag of cash being discovered and Olya not being entirely truthful depending on who she is talking to and you have all the ingredients for a single location revenge thriller with a lot of bite and a streak of black comedy running through the middle of it that justifies the gratuitous splatter.
The Tarantino comparison is an obvious but valid one, and it is clear that writer/director Kirill Sokolov has studied Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction intensely as the film jumps from scenes of legs being drilled, arterial spray coating everything within range and intestines being blown open to flashbacks and cutaways that fill in all the gaps that permeate the present narrative, all peppered with slow-motion and jump cuts that accentuate the action to the point where you can’t look away for an instant for fear of missing something. You want characters, motives and plot? Yeah, it is all in there but each element of the story is given just enough screen time for you to grasp it before a gun goes off or a skull is split open. There are a couple of moments where the movie slows down for breath – and it literally is for moments – before the roller coaster starts up against and you are breathlessly hurled towards the inevitable but no-less-satisfying Shakespearean ending.
Naturally, all of this gore looks spectacular on a large TV screen, the various shades of red being flung around in large quantities contrasting nicely with the mostly green walls of Andrey’s flat and making the visuals even more uncomfortable. Of the extra features the 25-minute featurette with author/critic Kim Newman exploring the movie and its various influences is extremely useful and informative, as are the Kirill Sokolov short films that are included, one of them being the award-winning Sisyphus is Happy, which isn’t as gleefully violent as Why Don’t You Just Die! but there is obvious talent there. You could argue that Why Don’t You Just Die! is too derivative of Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Sam Raimi and their ilk but you have to start somewhere and if Kirill Sokolov never makes another full-length feature then he has at least made one of the most entertaining splat-stick movies of the past few years. If he does get to make more full movies then this one is a fun and exciting introduction to a filmmaker with obvious flair and a future in genre cinema with an already established style he can build on. Watch this space…
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
