Anamorph (2007)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Great Film overall

Better Late Then Never

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Willem Dafoe in the role of a retiring detective haunted by his most famous case, a serial killer named Uncle Eddie. When a copycat killer seems to emerge, Dafoe's character, Stan Aubray, becomes the main target and obsession for this new murderer. Basically, this is a crime mystery with some grue, and the added element of esoteric photography. Most of the detective work seems forced, especially Carl discovering mirror images in his metal coffee mug - really? The deserted Playland doesn't seem to warrant much curiosity from PD, and neither is it staked out or called a crime scene, so that one last spooky scene can be performed there. Aubray does not seem very intelligent, merely lucky, and the red herrings are truly all the other characters thrown in to keep you guessing, which is OK, if you don't mind being strung along.Now, the ending. SPOILER: The killer is Aubray. It's obvious to me he's been hallucinating for the sake of the audience, and only at the end are we allowed to see him morphing into "Michael." Now - if there IS a Michael, and Aubray is NOT the killer, then this ending REALLY sucks. As it is, the ending as I see it is still too transparent because I was guessing it was Aubray the whole time. He feels guilt, which has manifested as self-hatred, and then hatred of all things related. He wasn't being stalked, he was stalking himself. AUBRAY put the painting on the street, then bought it. Aubray knew exactly how these esoteric devices worked because he was expert at it. He was just stuffing down the other self - he really didn't know he was doing this. "But wait," you say, "what about when they showed a picture of Michael?" I think Aubray was imagining these things, but the filmmakers just went a step too far in covering this up and left it to our imaginations. OK, not a bad trick, but not well-played, if you ask me.The music was overdramatic, reminiscent of Marvel Comics movies, and so it goes for the Green Goblin. The plot was super-thin with no real subplots to dig into. The dialogue tried to be existential, arty and earthy all at the same time but I was mostly bored.What did I LIKE? That one of the most important jobs in the world is fighting crime, and being a detective, because it exposes and catches evil, and actually does some good, even after the fact, and I think the film tries in the first half of the film to make this point.Check out this quirky but loose film at your own risk. It's visually appealing and has a bit of philosophy to ponder, but the rest is window dressing.

Anamorph is a loving ode to the wilfully nasty serial killer flicks of the 90's, obviously borrowing heavily from a few specific ones, the clearest example being Fincher's Sev7n. It's got the same dank, dispirited tone of that one, a restless urban nightmare wherein one lone detective searches for a heinous murderer that seems to elude him every step of the way, leaving increasingly grisly crimes in his wake. The detective here is Stan Aubrey (Willem Dafoe), a troubled fellow suffering from OCD, as if he didn't have enough to handle, with a killer on the loose. Dusky New York streets are the predator's playground, and he kills using some very elaborate, and very u settling techniques. Anamorphosis is a method used during times such as the Renaissance, where a painter would create a seemingly nonsensical sprawl with neither shape nor form, but when looked at through a tiny window of exposure (camera obscure), or from a painstakingly meticulous angle, a new image comes to light, in this case providing Dafoe with clues. Now this isn't any Renaissance painter we're dealing with, and he doesn't use oil base, if you catch my drift. The crime scenes in this film are very, very horrifying and hard to watch, almost on the level of Sev7n. Dafoe gets help from his art fanatic buddy Blair (Peter Stormare), and tries to look after the troubled Sandy (a moody Clea Duvall), the relative of a deceased friend. There's also work from Yul Vasquez, Scott Speedman, Don Harvey and the late James Rebhorn. Nasty stuff, this one, but stylish and well worth a late night watch with the lights low and your nerves on edge.

A detective (Willem Dafoe) is on the hunt for a killer who transforms his victims into works of art. The cases grow more and more brutal, and some suspect the detective himself may somehow be involved (though, from the audience's point of view, this involvement is not apparent). Who is the killer, can he be caught?I had low expectations for this film. Dafoe is an amazing actor, and has appeared in some great films (and some not-so-great but still popular ones). Typically, he wouldn't be in a film unless it was going to be huge. This being a straight-to-DVD title, I had to wonder... could it be good if they felt that Dafoe wasn't enough to carry it to the big screen? And the answer is simply: it's good, but not that good.Dafoe is a great actor, and Peter Stormare ("Prison Break") is a good character actor (playing, as usual, a thuggish type here). But they are put in a plot that doesn't really have much depth. The writer was concerned about getting us from corpse to corpse, but that was about the extent of it. The directing, likewise, is good, but will do little to further a career -- a year from now, I'll be the only person to recall this film. The special effects were good and deserve credit. While not the most realistic corpses ever, there was plenty of time and thought involved... so cheers to you.The one thing that stood out for me as quite good was the musical score. I have to say the composer hit the right nerves. I may already be mentally unbalanced -- this is true -- but the music hit me hard and gripped me, leaving me feeling dread and despair, which music will not often do. If the composer's goal was to create a mood of hopelessness and bleak darkness, I call this a success. A philosophical question could be raised about whether the acts committed here were murder, art or both. Some might suggest that the death of one person may be a worthy sacrifice if the art produced is of significant value. If death can be used to justify some things, why not art? The film doesn't really explore this theme, and I'm inclined to believe that murder is hardly, if ever, justifiable. But a potential discussion exists here.If you want to see a film about murder being turned into art, see the 1959 Roger Corman film "A Bucket of Blood". Or don't. But "Anamorph" will end up being an impulse rental that ultimately lets you down, I fear. 2008 is a slow year for horror and thrillers, so you may end up resorting to lesser fare to feed the addiction. Just be warned in advance that this is simply that and nothing more.

you must be seeing my comments over many films under Evren Buyruk ..I am off to make another comment over a movie that is not even worth a minute of talking though..This film is basically two hours of Dafoe's character drinking himself - nearly literally - to death. The only surprise in this film is that you didn't have enough clues or character knowledge to be surprised. It was just a grim, sad waste of time.Willem Dafoe is excellent actor. Peter Stormare is an excellent actor. But this film just sucked. Slow doesn't make the movie bad, it was just bad. The sketchy plot mixed with artistic ramblings of anamorphic detail aren't cohesively drawn together in a meaningful way for a plot except to highlight some gore which is illustrated from several perspectives, finally at the end. I really appreciate the artistic vision, but as entertainment, it put me to sleep. (Seriously, I fell asleep and had to re-watch the film - which was even more disappointing.) I generally don't like to make negative comments or reviews on the works of others, even when they suck, but this film warranted one. It's just too bad that these great actors were shamed with this end result.