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Reviews
A Thousand Cuts (2012)
thriller revenge plot
"A Thousand Cuts" is a wonderful movie that tells the story of a Hollywood horror director named Lance who's forced to endure a night of actual horror. The movie opens up at one of those glamy Hollywood pool parties full of bling and coke and self-important pricks, none worse than Lance himself. Lance rules his roost with boyish charm and a menacing leer: have fun or else. And mostly everyone does, the moguls, the over-the-hill actresses, the tight bodies and the clowns, as they all strive to impress, either by exaggerating their own accomplishments, or denigrating those of others. The whole soiree is wildly entertaining even as we begin to get the idea that this is going to be a smart Hollywood film that takes a hard look at other Hollywood films.
Naturally no Hollywood party would be complete without a stout wall and an even stouter guard to keep out the want-a-be's. One such want-a-be is the all too familiar schmuck with a script, who actually does manage a few seconds before a restive Lance. He's harmless (and hilarious) enough. But an electrician from the sticks, just the kind of person who in great numbers actually pays for these parties, soon proves otherwise. He jumps the wall while everyone is busy admiring everyone else and soon sets to doing what electricians do best, f***ing with the electricity.
It's one of the delightful ironies of this film that a party full of luminaries who specialize in the making of horror films – which by their very nature upend the lives of their characters via a steady profusion of unmitigated grizzle and gore – could be upended by an electrician simply flicking yard lights off and on. But that's exactly what happens as these professional screwers up of fictional character's lives can't seem to tolerate even a tad of imperfection in their own. Apparently, if these Hollywood types aren't well-lit, they head for the hills (as long as they're the Hollywood Hills).
And thus, after a mad rush for greener (or should I say, browner) pastures, the horror director and the scraggly electrician from Oklahoma are left all by their lonesomes in this tastefully appointed pleasure palace, financed by one spilled pint of theatrical blood after the other. At first everything seems honky dory, at least to the overconfident Lance, as he pops a beer and pulls up a kitchen stool for his new-found friend. But here's where the movie really starts to dig in its claws in the form of some masterfully delivered suspense. We know the electrician is not who he says he is. And wasn't there a bomb threat called in earlier? And didn't the stout security guard have some well-founded suspicions before being sent obliviously home by what-could- possibly-go-wrong Lance?
At long last, Lance gets the heebie jeebies as well...but it's too late. Of course the electrician has cut the phone lines. And of course he's packing a big ol' pistol. Not so of course is he's also managed to tie up the director's beloved sister in a special tank with a limited amount of oxygen. Tick tock, tick tock.
It's just the kind of plot the movie director might have written himself...except now he's living it. And that's the whole idea as far as the electrician is concerned, to visit revenge on Lance for one of his movies (the eponymously named, "A Thousand Cuts") which the electrician believes played a part in ruining his life.
From here on the movie plays out as a terrifically conceived thriller with a kidnap revenge plot at its core which at the very end turns neatly upside down on a sudden reveal and a single line of dialog. It's the best moment of all in a film full of good moments, extremely strong performances, and perhaps the ugliest coffee table in cinematic history. Check it out.
Naturally no Hollywood party would be complete without a stout wall and an even stouter guard to keep out the want-a-be's. One such want-a-be is the all too familiar schmuck with a script, who actually does manage a few seconds before a restive Lance. He's harmless (and hilarious) enough. But an electrician from the sticks, just the kind of person who in great numbers actually pays for these parties, soon proves otherwise. He jumps the wall while everyone is busy admiring everyone else and soon sets to doing what electricians do best, f***ing with the electricity.
It's one of the delightful ironies of this film that a party full of luminaries who specialize in the making of horror films – which by their very nature upend the lives of their characters via a steady profusion of unmitigated grizzle and gore – could be upended by an electrician simply flicking yard lights off and on. But that's exactly what happens as these professional screwers up of fictional character's lives can't seem to tolerate even a tad of imperfection in their own. Apparently, if these Hollywood types aren't well-lit, they head for the hills (as long as they're the Hollywood Hills).
And thus, after a mad rush for greener (or should I say, browner) pastures, the horror director and the scraggly electrician from Oklahoma are left all by their lonesomes in this tastefully appointed pleasure palace, financed by one spilled pint of theatrical blood after the other. At first everything seems honky dory, at least to the overconfident Lance, as he pops a beer and pulls up a kitchen stool for his new-found friend. But here's where the movie really starts to dig in its claws in the form of some masterfully delivered suspense. We know the electrician is not who he says he is. And wasn't there a bomb threat called in earlier? And didn't the stout security guard have some well-founded suspicions before being sent obliviously home by what-could- possibly-go-wrong Lance?
At long last, Lance gets the heebie jeebies as well...but it's too late. Of course the electrician has cut the phone lines. And of course he's packing a big ol' pistol. Not so of course is he's also managed to tie up the director's beloved sister in a special tank with a limited amount of oxygen. Tick tock, tick tock.
It's just the kind of plot the movie director might have written himself...except now he's living it. And that's the whole idea as far as the electrician is concerned, to visit revenge on Lance for one of his movies (the eponymously named, "A Thousand Cuts") which the electrician believes played a part in ruining his life.
From here on the movie plays out as a terrifically conceived thriller with a kidnap revenge plot at its core which at the very end turns neatly upside down on a sudden reveal and a single line of dialog. It's the best moment of all in a film full of good moments, extremely strong performances, and perhaps the ugliest coffee table in cinematic history. Check it out.