Wristcutters: A Love Story - with many spoilers

Wristcutters: A Love Story is the much clunkier, less elegant name given to the screen adaptation of Kneller’s Happy Campers, a book by Etgar Keret. There was also a graphic novel created under the title Pizzeria Kamikaze.

Verdict

My movie ratings consist of thumbs up or middle fingers as sometimes one starring something doesn’t shame it enough. 5 thumbs up = an absolute triumph. 5 middle fingers = a complete piece of shit, go fuck yourself.

Wristcutters: A Love Story - 4.5 Thumbs up

As dark and funny as it is cool. Hipper than photographing an avocado through an upcycled polaroid camera.

Favourite quote I enjoyed how shit this analogy was:-

But the last few words would make a good tattoo

Also:

“That’s Nanuk. She’s a mute. She does this sort of throat singing. She’s hilarious.” - Kneller’s introduction to Nanuk

Favourite scene

I laughed out loud about four times during this movie. Something I never usually do when I’m completely alone. The scene where Eugene refuses to sit in the back of the car “‘Cause everybody knows guy in back seat doesn’t have a cock” was one of those times. The scene where Eugene talks his brother down from hanging himself and slaps him in the face was my favourite.

Best meme from the movie

Analysis

Wristcutters was a movie I picked to go into the jar. When I learned of its existence I wondered how I’d never heard of it before. It was darkly comic, about suicide, and appeared to feature Tom Waits. I’d have to check out the trailer. Will Arnett, a host of recognizable actors and a Gogol Bordello song later, and I was completely sold. But would it live up to the hype? I had built this film up so much that it couldn’t possibly meet expectations. And then it did.

Opening with a Tom Waits song immediately got me excited. Then later, after the amount of Gogol Bordello that had been played in the first 30 minutes, I did some research. Eugene was actually based on Eugene Hutz, the lead singer of Gogol Bordello, and to top it all off, his character later plays the musical saw with an accompaniment of Mongolian throat singing. Maybe they did make films for people like me. Maybe the world wasn’t a completely boring stream of reality television and mindless franchise bandwagoning after all. Or maybe they just used to… in 2006. A time where youths each belonged to a tribe based on their interests. Skateboarders, goths, chavs, people a little too into anime. Tribes. Wandering around a town centre in 2021, staring into the well-groomed, heavily contoured faces of a generation of beige chino enthusiasts, I can’t help but feel that those days are over at the hands of our social media overlords. Stop crowdsourcing your personalities, youths. Break from the hivemind. Be a Eugene Hutz.

Now, there’s no pretending this movie doesn’t have issues. It definitely does. The odd little annoyance here or there was far outweighed by the overall experience. These tiny elements are the only reason the movie never got a full five stars from me. One of which is, if you are going to fill a film with Gogol Bordello songs, and base a character on Eugene Hutz… why not cast Eugene Hutz?! It’s not even like he’s a stranger to acting. He featured in Everything is illuminated literally THE YEAR BEFORE. The black hole under the car seat also seemed a bit out of place, and not the best segway into the climax of the movie.

For a dark comedy, this movie had a lot more laughs than I was expecting and the general feel of the movie was quite pleasant. Certain nuances like the lack of stars and smiling were a brilliant touch, which amplifies the climax where the couple find each other and thus, their smiles. Part of me doesn’t quite believe that no actor smiled in any scene up until that point, that maybe it’s a bit like the "no birds fly over Auschwitz" statement. A statement echoed by plenty of people who’ve never visited it, but a beautiful sentiment nonetheless, that I don’t really believe but would hate to disprove.

Finally, Nick Offerman was a nice cameo and I'm sure Kneller was wearing a t-shirt that said "Saint" quite early on in the movie, eluding to his greater purpose in the universe of suiciders in limbo. This, amongst other little easter eggs - "Hunger strike cafe" for example - enriched the experience even further.

The bottom line

This is possibly my favourite ever dark comedy. It’s not perfect, just growing strong and growing strange.