Plot
Inspired by a true crime, a man begins to experience mystifying events that lead him to slay his mother with a sword.
Release Year: 2009
Rating: 6.3/10 (3,835 voted)
Critic's Score: 59/100
Director:
Werner Herzog
Stars: Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe, Chloë Sevigny
Storyline Inspired by a true crime, a man begins to experience mystifying events that lead him to slay his mother with a sword.
Writers: Werner Herzog, Herbert Golder
Cast: Michael Shannon
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Brad McCullum
Willem Dafoe
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Detective Hank Havenhurst
Chloë Sevigny
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Ingrid
Brad Dourif
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Uncle Ted
Michael Peña
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Detective Vargas
Udo Kier
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Lee Meyers
Loretta Devine
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Miss Roberts
Verne Troyer
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Grace Zabriskie
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Mrs. McCullum
James C. Burns
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Swat Commander Brown
Irma P. Hall
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Mrs. Roberts
Candice Coke
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Officer Slocum
Braden Lynch
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Gary
Gabriel Pimentel
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Midget
Jenn Liu
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Receptionist
Filming Locations: Calaveras Big Trees State Park, California, USA
Opening Weekend: £6,815
(UK)
(10 September 2010)
(2 Screens)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Executive producer David Lynch had previously worked with Willem Dafoe in
Wild at Heart and Brad Dourif in both
Dune and
Blue Velvet.
Quotes: Ingrid:
[Talking to a police officer concerning Brad McCullum's actions]
I'm his fiancee, I think I can help!
User Review
Small but classic Herzog
Rating: 8/10
OK, maybe you have to be a Herzog fan to get this one. In its small and
quiet way it's a classic Herzogian study of visionary madness and
obsession, played out this time with mordant irony against the
blandness of suburban San Diego. Brad, a brooding man-child who lives
with his mom, gradually goes nuts, saying and doing increasingly
unhinged (and funny) things to his clueless loved ones, played by goofy
character actors like Udo Kier, Grace Zabriskie and Chloe Sevigny.
Willem Dafoe plays the equally clueless detective called in when Brad,
inevitably, explodes in a single (off-screen) act of violence. All the
usual Herzog flourishes are here, though often played small: odd
animals, oddball people, grimly threatening nature, useless
bureaucratic procedures, civilization and its hapless inhabitants
struggling to maintain order and etiquette in the face of the world's
natural madness, violence and chaos. It's a wacky, Herzogian comedy of
manners, very much in the tradition of many of his films from Dwarfs
through Stroszek to Grizzly Man. If you like Herzog you'll probably
like it; if not, maybe not.
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