- Featured Staff Review: Bullhead
Not for squeamish or easily rattled viewers, Bullhead, the electrifying, Oscar®-nominated debut from Belgian writer/director Michaël R. Roskam, doesn't shy away from violence while depicting one steroid-addled man's gender issues and the seedy underground world of animal hormone sales.
Matthias Schoenaerts delivers a stunning, tour-de-force performance as Jacky. A reclusive, stunningly muscular farmer with a troubled past that has rendered him less functional than the average male, Jacky uses a mix of human and animal hormone injections to keep his body jacked up. Jacky soon becomes entangled with Diedrick (Jeroen Perceval), a closeted childhood friend who works for the local bovine mafia and keeps secret both his homosexuality and the fact that he is a police informant. As their two worlds collide, memories of a traumatic incident from Jacky's adolescence begin to resurface - and shocking, heartbreaking, drug-influenced violence soon ensues.
