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Ultra-violent and social reprehensible, Ex Drummer must be seen.

Not since Trainspotting have I seen anything as aggressive as this.  Like Trainspotting, Ex Drummer is about the broken people that have fallen through society’s cracks.  These people fun in dysfunctional.  It’s one wild, extreme ride that has split critics and filmgoers.  It’s a trip on the dark side of humanity that isn’t pretty or easy to watch. 

Skin-head wacko Koen de Geyter (Norman Baert) has formed a punk band that is only going to play one show.  Jan is his bassist and guitarist Ivan joins him.  They have everything thing they need but a drummer.  They approach an arrogant novelist, Dries (Dries Van Hegen) to join the band on one condition; he must have a handicap.  Each member has a handicap; Koen a lisp, Jan deaf and Ivan a stiff arm from when his mother caught him masturbating.  Dries is bored with his cushy life and likes the idea of joining a bunch of reprobates in a hopeless punk band.  He tells them his handicap is he can’t play the drums, but it doesn’t really matter since they’re a punk band anyway.  They call themselves The Feminists because four handicapped guys are the same as a bunch of feminists.

From the opening credits where the film is played in reverse, I knew that Ex Drummer wasn’t going to be a normal film.  Dries is smarter than the lot of them put together and proceeds to manipulate and abuse everyone he meets.  Director Koen Mortier is intent on not being predictable and succeeds. Ex Drummer is based in our world but Mortier has a slightly skewed vision of what exactly that is.  He fills his movie with experimental camera work, the blackest of black humor, driving punk music, bloody violence and extremely graphic sex. 

Each members real handicap isn’t what they profess.  Sure Koen has a slight lisp but his real problem is he’s a rabid misogynist who beats women any chance he can and lives on his ceiling.  Jan has a father who is strapped to his bed at all times, while his bald mother lives vicariously through him. Ivan beats his wife while neglecting his baby girl.  Each person is ripe for exploitation and Dries plays them all to his advantage. 

Mortier doesn’t pull any punches and takes every opportunity to offend.  If it’s not a gay guy being sodomized by burly guy named Big Dick, it’s politically incorrect rants by different characters about blacks, women or anything else that comes to mind.  I’m not sure how much of it is from Mortier or from the book he adapted.  Because it’s so offensive at times, Ex Drummer has a certain feeling of reality that these characters are so far down society’s ladder that they can only trash others to feel elevated. 

Ex Drummer is so well put together that it’s hard to believe that this is director Mortier’s first film.  He brings more to the table than pretty much any director working today and should be a major talent in the years to come.  He doesn’t stick with film conventions and creates his own language.  I can’t remember a better debut film outside of maybe Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.

The extra features aren’t that great but the movie is so strong it hardly matters.  You’ll find a making of featuette, two music videos and a bit on Overdo Hykers – the band that never made the film.

Koen Mortier has created one of the few films I can’t recommend enough.  It’s not for everyone as Ex Drummer is extremely violent and profane. Those looking for something outside the mainstream or like over the top films will gladly embrace this movie.  It’s a must own for those that are willing to take the chance.

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