From Austrian filmmaker Gotz Spielman comes “Revanche” a rather existential character piece dressed up like a thriller. It stars Johannes Krisch as Alex, a man stripped of meaning and plagued by thoughts of revenge in the aftermath of a crime that was to better his life as well as his girlfriend Tamara’s. The film takes place mostly on a small farm owned by Alex’s father, Hausner, in the lush wooded outskirts of Vienna. 

Most descriptions make mention of a film entirely about redemption, taking place entirely in a brothel in Vienna’s red light district. While there is no actual showing of any sort of violence it is more than suggested. I went in expecting a straightforward revenge movie. Most promo up until its release chose to ignore it’s more apparent art house leanings and focus solely on it’s gritty secondary elements which are quite lacking in pertinence to the overall story. Certain descriptions read like “Cinemax After Dark” programming.

Critique of the film is by and large quite good but there are a few sprawling reviews out there from folks who feel they were bamboozled, suggesting the movie is nothing more than a guy chopping wood for 2 hours. My personal opinion falls somewhere between the two.

I can appreciate and enjoy cinema of all forms. I find just as much enjoyment in Cassavetes as I do in Family Guy. What I don’t enjoy is bullshit marketing, the type employed only to get a vast majority of people in the door rather than attempting to appeal to it’s target audience, people who would enjoy the film for it’s less mainstream ideals. It’s truly aggravating though I gather what i’ve just described is probably the text book definition of good marketing from the marketers perspective but I digress.

I’m glad I took the bait and watched Revanche. I highly recommend it to anyone who finds satisfaction in character study. Johannes Krisch’s performance is cinematic perfection. I’ve kept this review purposefully short as to not give away to much of the story but don’t let that steer you away.

-Tyler Pursel-