The Son, Damsel

Joaquin Furriel as an anxious Dad in The Son

Sebastian Schindel's The Son is an Argentine horror film that tries to put a masculine twist on Rosemary's Baby. The direction, acting and production touches are fine, but, even with a scrambled narrative, the results are all too predictable. Schindel is onto something in his exploration of masculine anxieties towards women's procreative powers and their post-feminist (and post-pill) power in the workplace, but themes are left undeveloped. The result is competent, but not memorable.

The Zellner Brothers' Damsel is an absurdist Western that meanders somewhat pointlessly. Thanks to a talented cast, particularly Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattison and Russell Mael (!), the film is intermittently entertaining. The film boasts handsome cinematography from Adam Stone and Terry Anderson's costume design is first rate. However, there is not much here except a sendup of the heroic myths of the American West. The satire is faintly amusing, but once you get past the debunking of frontier mythos, there is little else going on.