I need to find a staunch Carlos Reygadas fan who caught tonight’s screening of Post Tenebras Lux, as I did, who could maybe share his or her interpretations. (Is Manohla around?) There’s an undercurrent of dread throughout, but mostly it lacks connective tissue. Three scenes of abrupt violence (especially the final one) are…well, I suppose the term is “noteworthy.” And it contains a truly strange, Hieronymous Bosch-like orgy scene in a Turkish bath sex club. And a moving deathbed soliloquy (although there’s no clue that the speaker is dying when he delivers it). But otherwise I found it slow, lumpy, indulgent and mystifying. Don’t get me started on the soccer game footage. Social rot and demonic behavior are the subjects, but it doesn’t tie together.
