VOD: Why Don't You Just Die! (dir: Kirill Sokolov, 2020)

"Whatever a man does, what matters is that he's serious about it, right?"

This deliriously violent Russian movie marks a notable debut feature for its director, who is steeped in influences and uses them wisely and also displays a singular effective vision for the film.  At its heart the film is a Jacobean Tragedy for the modern age, opening with a seemingly ordinary young man ( a terrific performance by Aleksandr Kuznetsov as Matvey) with hammer in hand - DIY is not on his mind - with mayhem unleashed shortly.  Small flashbacks fill in the back story and break the claustrophic confines of the flat in which most of the film takes place, with sufficient twists and unexpected outcomes controlled carefully.  It channels Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, Timur Bekmanbetov, even David Lynch, and the film conveys the same madcap yet inventive abandon that combines wince-inducing violence and cartoonish comedy (often at the same time!) like Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2.  It is not for the faint-hearted, and the energy dips occasionally, but this movie is an inventive late-night blast.