Review of Pieces of a Woman
midlandsmovies • January 13, 2021
Pieces of a Woman (2021) Dir. Kornél Mundruczó
It’s rare to find a film of such contrasting halves. Following the fallout between a Boston couple Martha and Sean (two excellent performances by Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf) after the death of their new-born daughter, Pieces of a Woman starts strong but quickly falls away into melodramatic nonsense.
The opening half hour follows Martha as she goes into labour. It’s a highly affective scene, with sweeping camera movements and strong, naturalistic acting from the two leads. Director Kornél Mundruczó and writer Kata Wéber refuse to flinch away from the uncomfortable realities of childbirth, or the fear that comes with it.
Taken out of context from the rest of the film, it’s one of the strongest pieces of work Netflix has ever produced. Containing all the raw emotion and tenderness that a five-star drama should include.
How strange that it should fall apart so completely then. Quickly the film starts to rely on heavy-handed allegories. Sean works on a bridge-building crew, literally bringing people closer together as his own relationship shows the strain of such a traumatic event. Even a wholly unnecessary conversation about The White Stripes is beaten into shape to try and represent the couple in some way.
Where the dialogue had previously felt off-the-cuff and natural, it’s now forced around cliches, with exposition galore to push the characters in certain directions. Grief does strange things to people and it’s not that the actions are necessarily out of character, but in a two-hour film the progression still feels rushed.
Even worse, the misconduct court case (which a large part of the film revolves around) is farcically presented. It’s hard to believe that legal proceedings would be handled in such a way, a final nail in the coffin for a film that started so strong.
There’s also the elephant in the room. The allegations against Shia LaBeouf (made last December by his ex-partner FKA Twigs). It’s hard not to find one particular scene in Pieces of a Woman deeply uncomfortable because of this.
Mundruczó and Wéber are a deeply talented partnership, given access to the almost unlimited Netflix coffers and provided with a cast brimming with talent. Ellen Burstyn is wonderful as Martha’s disapproving mother. Yet this is European cinema via Hollywood, with all the trappings that come with that.
The subtleties have been amplified and made melodramatic. Even the score is designed to tell you exactly how to feel at which point. This feels like a great idea dumbed down; a move that is more offensive because of its sensitive subject matter.
★★
Matthew Tilt
Twitter @Matthew_Tilt
Up! (1976) Dir. Russ Meyer Well, bi-Adolf Hitler BDSM is not something (a) I thought I’d ever see 5 minutes into a movie and (b) ever expected to write in my lifetime to be fair but this spicy start is pretty standard for the work of exploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer. Up! is a kind of r*pe-revenge softcore p*rn film (there’s gonna be a fair bit of self-censorship in this review so apologies in advance), the type Meyer is known for. I’d describe the plot in more detail but it’s mostly a convoluted and incoherent mess of double-crossing, murder, violence and lots and lots of humping. In short, a man called Adolph gets murdered and a woman investigates (kinda) the circumstances but as she does so, a group of locals blackmail, attack and screw each other with the murder mystery barely mentioned throughout. With so little narrative, it could be argued if it’s essentially p*rn? To be fair, not far off. It’s about extreme as you can go without simply making a s*x film. Is that a…no, it’s a belly button hole. Bookending the film (and also seen at various points throughout) is a Greek Chorus - simply a busty fully nude woman of course - who delivers dialogue like “Pummelling the scrotum with joyous supplication” and other such poeticisms. This artistic flourish is mostly pointless - the actress herself saying the words were tough to learn because it was utter nonsense. On a technical level, the editing is surprisingly well done and the 4k image is frankly fantastic. Someone somewhere must be putting together a post-modern take about the beautiful landscapes and cinematography of Meyer’s * ahem * output. But it definitely does have a kitsch artistry. It has certainly provided plenty of cinematic influence though. Elements of Tarantino grindhouse sensibilities are on show - Meyers likes bosoms as much as Quents likes feet - and there’s even a leather gimp early on. I can also see how its had an impact on Ti West X’s with a focus on sexuality and the body as well, more obviously, Anna Biller’s feminist-twist The Love Witch (2016). Suffice to say it’s not for the weak of heart. I think in this day and age you can’t go into this completely blind to its style, period and context though. It's an X-rated Carry On style that was bad taste then and it’s bad taste now. It revels in its sleaziness without a single hint of shame or apology. Simply saying 'deal with it'. The main negative though is the absence of plot - if the film can even be looked at like that - which is barely present. This is a shame as the whole thing could do with a bit more coherence rather than endless shagging. But it’s far from titillation, it’s mostly clowning - albeit a very adult version of it. More saucy than sexy. Trying to review this through modern sensibilities is almost impossible. It’s as offensive can be from the first scene through to the final credits - heck even this 4k menu is simply one of the film's many s*x scenes. But there are some progressive themes as it doesn’t shy from confronting sexual freedom, bisexuality, gay sex, BDSM and consensual exploration. There's moments of comedy thrown in and I enjoyed a frankly hilarious 5-minute monologue explaining the culprit’s intentions, which was a ludicrous way to deliver a slasher-style ending. I suppose the main thing about Up! (and Meyers’ work overall) is there’s a sort of love it or loathe it quality about the whole shebang. But it’s so unlike anything being made today - for good or bad - that it’s never anything other than unpredictably fascinating. More explicit than most Meyers films - in fact more than any film - it’s a lewd, rude and crude (s)exploration with a satirical edge and campy enjoyment bouncing from every frame. ★★★ 3 / 5 Michael Sales Severin Films releases Russ Meyers' UP! (1976) and MOTORPSYCHO (1965) on 28 April 2025 in newly restored and scanned 4k with hours of new and archival Special Features https://severinfilms.co.uk/
On the 24th of April, the Midlands Art Centre opened its doors to Gobby Flicks Productions for a night of live comedy. Proceeds were raised towards the production of new short comedy films, directed and written by women.
Ti West’s The House of the Devil makes a wonderful companion piece to his film The Innkeepers. Both maintain the director’s referential approach to horror, incapsulating it in a slow burning 90 minutes that manages to build and maintain tension while cheekily winking to the audience and showing the mechanisms behind the scares.
Read the full list of nominees for the Midlands Movies Awards 2025