A Wounded Fawn
In film culture, which increasingly rejects intellectualism both in theaters and outside them, there is something nice about a movie that centers around one character’s need to correctly evaluate an ancient Greek sculpture. “A Wounded Fawn” is a work of art history and art appreciation across millenniums, drawing symbolism from the deep well of our shared past and holding it up still wet. Call it pretentious if you want. But don’t call it stuffy.
Travis Stevens’ (“Jakob’s Wife,” “Girl on the Third Floor”) third feature is born from fire and blood; taking his gift for striking visuals and pushing it into psychedelic territory. ‘70s grindhouse cinema with all its grain and grit and fraught gender politics is Stevens’ main aesthetic touchstone for “A Wounded Fawn.” That gets crossed with Dario Argento’s intense pools of bright color, then thrown against the grotesque sensibilities of Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings. The result feels like looking at an exposed live wire.
The anger behind this in-your-face style is women’s righteous fury at misogynist forces of violence and oppression. Those forces come in the shape of Bruce (Josh Ruben), a nice-seeming guy who museum curator Meredith (Sarah Lind) is feeling really good about after a few dates. We know Bruce is bad news when Meredith agrees to go upstate with him for a romantic weekend in the country: In a cold open, we’ve already seen Bruce stalkand slash an art dealer over “The Wrath of the Erinyes,” an extremely old piece representing feminine rage through three statues of Greek mythological figures called Furies or Eumenides (the names change depending on translation). Now we’re just waiting for Meredith to catch up.
It does not take much unpacking to figure out that having some misogynistic psycho kill female characters as part their plan getting hands on statues symbolizing women’s anger might be bit too on nose in terms of symbolism. Fortunately, the revenge is equally unsubtle: The first half of “A Wounded Fawn” plays like a smart but not groundbreaking serial killer thriller; then it spins out into something surreal and unexpected as Bruce gets supernatural comeuppance for his many sins. This is, of course, deeply satisfying to watch. But what makes it really interesting is that we are never certain how much these wailing harpies come from Bruce’s own head.
At the movie’s midpoint, tone shifts from lean and mean to loud and lurid. Mythological creatures who have thus far hovered around edges story step forward into foreground when three Furies Tisiphone (Rebecca Romijn), Alecto (Arden Myrin), Megaera (Travis Stevens) show up personifying wrath in human form.
They’re accompanied by human sized owl wearing steampunk goggles (voiced by Michael Ironside) surrounded by its cultist followers; gallons upon gallons red-orange blood; gallons more occult trappings than you can shake blackthorn wand at. And just like that, “A Wounded Fawn” has gone from being violent caterpillar to an equally violent but vastly stranger butterfly.
There are times in back half where film feels like avant-garde theater production or bunch Shakespearean actors high on psychedelics people wrapped bedsheets soaked fake blood running through woods screaming their lines about wrath but these moments do not ruin movie for us. Couple reasons why: First is Stevens’ cunning use grindhouse aesthetics throughout entire second act
Also, the movies were all, moreover, connected by duct tape; thus making rough edges enhance the effect.
Another factor is how hard the lead actors worked for their roles. As far as I am concerned, Lind has done a great job in playing Meredith; she is driven forward by some divine power. This power moves her on with confidence of a valkyrie riding a horse. Ruben deserves credit too for taking punches without complaint; especially during an outro that represents everything this movie stands for lunacy combined with audacity mingled with justifiable rage against institutions.
In his earlier films Stevens used certain genre conventions to explore different ideas but in this one he breaks them completely.
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