Movie Review – Ex Drummer

Director – Koen Mortier.
Cast – Dries Van Hegen, Norman Baert, Gunter Lamoot, Sam Louwyck, François Beukelaers and Bernadette Damman.

An author looking for new ideas finds them handed to him on a plate when three self-proclaimed handicapped musicians knock on his door. They have read somewhere that the author professed to have an aptitude for playing the drums. They believe that they can piggy back on his fame and elevate themselves, even for a short time, out of their miserable existences. The singer has a slight speech impediment, the bass player has a stiff arm and the guitarist is a little deaf. Their real handicap is the fact that they are degenerates with anger the only emotion they express.

In order to generate more fodder for his novel the author sets about manipulating his new band mates to sink to even more turgid depths. As a result we are presented with 100 long minutes brimming with violent multiple rapes, graphic un-simulated sex scenes, senseless unprovoked extreme violence, countless murders and even child death through the ingestion of faeces. Not to mention many, many litres of vomit and blood. This is a film that is trying desperately to shock, to become a talking point, to celebrate the grotesque. The first scene is played in reverse and bodes well for some clever camera work and interesting ideas. However, while there are plenty more moments of camera trickery it becomes clear quickly, very quickly that this is a case of style over substance. The fact that the lead singer spends his time at home walking on the ceiling is never explained and seems to be just a gimmick.

The band is a punk band and some may argue that this film is an examination of that lifestyle. I would suggest however that the punk angle is a just a tool to excuse what pans out. The script is utterly baffling, there are very few scenes where it is clear what exactly is being talked about. There is a lot of cod surrealism from the author and this grates after a while. Perhaps the director was trying to caricature punk life. It’s impossible to tell as the film is such a failure in transmitting what, if anything, he is try to say.

It’s difficult to find anything worthwhile here but Gunter Lamoot as the bass player does seem to give his character a little more believability, a little more realness - though only a little. I am sure this film would wish to be considered shocking and explicit. In many ways it is but mainly it is simply dull and dreary.