Rosebush Pruning, 2026.
Directed by Karim Aïnouz.
Starring Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Lukas Gage, Elena Anaya, Tracy Letts, Elle Fanning, and Pamela Anderson.
SYNOPSIS:
A family struggling with genetic illnesses lives on a country estate. Personal drama develops amongst them in this intimate portrait.
Giving credit where it’s due, Rosebush Pruning (from director Karim Aïnouz, with a screenplay by Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Efthimis Filippou, based on Marco Bellocchio’s film Fist in the Pockets) is imaginatively, dementedly perverted, following an elitist, wealthy, incestuous family’s dynamics turned upside down while living life spoiled rotten somewhere in Spain. The Lannisters have nothing on these people. Unfortunately, it amounts mostly to hollow shock value.
One could also argue that the emptiness is baked into the premise and characters, and that even without much to take away narratively beyond how horrible these people are, the film is certainly never dull and coasts on its disturbing nature. Put it this way, at one point sibling Anna (Riley Keough) confidently boasts that she knows what turns her three brothers and father on, and the information is like Pandora’s Box; once it’s out you can’t put it away or wipe away the knowledge of these kinks (which is said not necessarily to shame them but more about how, in this case, it feeds into how toxically warped the family is).
Fortunately, there is someone remotely likable here, as Jamie Bell’s Jack is currently seeing Martha (Elle Fanning) in secret, attempting to leave the spacious home they inherited and start his own life. Naturally, there is justifiable concern that the blind patriarch (credited only as Father and played by Tracy Letts with a skin-crawlingly creepy and domineering screen presence) and siblings might oppose. Nevertheless, he boldly invites her over for dinner, where the family cuts down her social status, fashion, body, and everything else they can think of (with the lecherous father having his daughter describe Martha’s breast size, more than happy to go along with the perversion while insisting that hers are bigger). Needless to say, it doesn’t go well, and Jack is also questioning his commitment. Martha isn’t exactly an innocent party either, as she has her own expensive, risky demands, although they typically seem less about greed and more about pushing Jack into a position to make a choice.
By now, you might be wondering where Mom is in all of this, and no one could blame you. Technically, she is played by Pamela Anderson, although she tragically died from being eaten by wolves not long ago. It’s an outrageous film in multiple ways. Then there is Edward (Callum Turner), a narrator and central entry point to the story and to these characters through his observations. On a recent vacation, he too met someone he fancied (appearing to discover that he is gay in the process), yet knows he would be unable to be with him.
There is much uncomfortable unpleasantness in this family, mostly commandeered and dished out by Father, who is not only taken care of by his children but sexually appeased. The third sibling, Robert (Lukas Gage), is possibly hornier and more incestuous than Anna, which seems to come down to a satirical point as the one who craves the most attention. The trade-off to these gross sexual indulgences is that the home, including the rest of the film, is certainly colorful and pleasant to look at, with an electronic score at times to drive home some of the more absurd sequences.
That mostly comes down to various family members scheming to kill one another so they can either escape this hell or use it to their advantage to keep it together. One of those death scenes ranks among what will surely be the funniest of the year; three or four hours removed from watching the movie, I still chuckle thinking about it, and wish that the majority of the movie carried that same sense of diabolical humor rather than indulging in the taboo as a means to provoke a shock without much purpose beyond “isn’t this family f***** up?” Something impossible to look away from also shouldn’t be this muted or boil down to a series of gross events, with nothing to take away from other than rich people sure do get up to some disturbing stuff isolated in their bubbles, and up their own asses above everyone else.
The third act especially falls apart in another way, as several of the characters’ decisions and motives don’t entirely make sense. Rosebush Pruning is what happens when screenwriter Efthimis Filippou doesn’t have Yorgos Lanthimos adding layers and real characterization to the deranged. Despite that, it is so knowingly and originally tasteless that it’s almost worth recommending on that front alone.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
