We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)

A woman (Tilda Swinton) must deal with the aftermath of a high school massacre committed by her 16 year old son (Ezra Miller). Flashbacks show that he was a malicious, nasty child and that she was an unloving mother who resented him for making her life miserable. Was she partly responsible for the monster he became? Or was he simply an evil seed? In its way, this is a superior intellectual cousin to THE BAD SEED with the poppycock genetics nonsense thrown out on its ear and a thought provoking examination of the profile of a mass murderer in its place. And the film's deeply disturbed Kevin is far more frightening because he's more realistic than the silly and phony Rhoda Penmark! Swinton is pretty awesome here. A rich faceted performance, slowly and almost unwillingly peeling away the layers to a complex woman who may share in the guilt of the monstrous acts her son committed. Easily one of the most disturbing, unpleasant films I've ever seen. The film is not without flaws. I hated the top 40 pop song soundtrack which was not only atrocious but obvious and lazy. Directed by Lynne Ramsay. There is a short, minimalist underscore by Jonny Greenwood (THERE WILL BE BLOOD). With John C. Reilly as the father, Ashley Gerasimovich as the sister and Jasper Newell as the young Kevin.