SÁTÁNTANGÓ (1994) ★
As unsentimental a view of hardworking provincial people as you'll find anywhere: with a few key exceptions Tarr sees them as small-minded, driven by appetite, and morally weak, ready to betray a neighbor or a sibling for a handful of coins and barely willing to muster the energy to cover their tracks. They have the virtue of a surfeit of hope, yes—unfortunately, this hope does little more than make them vulnerable to repeated rounds of exploitation by a smooth-talking grifter (and his thuggish associates), who they follow with unwavering devotion in the hopes of a bigger payday and more dignified standing. All the while he sneers privately at them, protected by a badly corrupted justice system. As anyone watching America stumble through the mud for a decade can plainly attest, this critique has lost none of its necessity or force in the last thirty-odd years. A relentless watch, genuinely tough to endure especially as it circles the drain in its final hours, less from the pure duration and more from the lasting sense of moral injury the film inflicts. And yet I've seen this twice now and would willingly sit for it again.
