Ex-Drummer
Aug 07 - Aug 13, 2009
(Koen Mortier, Belgium, 2007, 35mm, 104 min)
Seattle premiere!
Somewhere in Belgium a deaf guitar player, a stiff-armed bassist and a psychopathic guitarist-vocalist with a lisp form a rock band for a one-off performance. The trio lacks a drummer so they seek the services of a celebrity author, who also has a reputation as a drummer, to fill the role. Out of this mess is born The Feminists, a quasi-disabled punk rock band whose journey towards its only gig drags almost everybody involved down a black hole of abuse, exploitation and death. Ex-Drummer is adapted from a novel of the same name by Herman Brusselmans, and the film has drawn comparisons to Trainspotting. But the film's non-stop barrage of clever visuals, vulgar humor, random violence and high energy music (The Feminists tackle a solid cover of Devo's "Mongoloid" and tracks from Lightning Bolt, Isis, Mogwai and others also appear on the soundtrack) places Ex-Drummer in an entirely different cultural and aesthetic space than any other film. It is angry, funny and entertainingly foul from beginning to end.
“Bizarre, horribly violent and frequently brilliant black comedy from Belgium.” —Guardian
Watch the trailer:
