MATT DILLON'S KILLER ROLE IN 'THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT'

Year of Capture and Release: 2018

THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT isn't quite sure when it's good since the good parts don't last long enough, or connect to the movie as a whole, intruded upon by annoying off-screen conversational narration (i.e. colorless commentary) between Matt Dillon and a mysterious, vocally-grating Bruno Ganz...

As a Serial Killer Movie, the most interesting scenes are the deaths, and there are five "situations" in total, warned up front by title cards. But overboard director Lars von Trier throws in so many video clips (Nazis, etc) that in trying to connect with the "ultra violence" on screen, the story and character become secondhand as opposed to second-nature for Matt Dillon's Jack, made up like someone who'd be teased about dressing like "a serial killer" including awkward glasses and uncomfortably looking "nice clothes." In fact, his first victim in Matt's BEAUTIFUL GIRLS co-star Uma Thurman bags on his threads while literally begging to be murdered. 

Inserted Stop Motion liken to that Tool video

The following two slayings have a suspenseful vibe that Jack could strike at his intended victim at... any... moment...

And the fact you don't want him caught during particular close calls... especially when moving the bodies to a privately-owned meat-packing room... is proof the movie's working i.e. you want the exploitative bloodshed to continue since... well... that's what the damn thing's about: You didn't pay for a romantic comedy, after all.

Matt Dillon in his killer hobbit hole MOVIE RATES: **1/2

But the violence, while seeming real enough within the movie, eventually feels distant and unrealized from the perspective of Dillon's character...

As if we're seeing what he's fantasizing... especially given all the fantastical, surrealistic inserts along the way... as opposed to the horrid reality of a sick, twisted mind.

Von Tier plays his CLOCKWORK ORANGE inspired hand so close to this fictionalized psychopath that, in trying to show all the bloodshed as mundane and par-for-the-course, there's very little to be actually shocked about: Especially as the well runs dry less than halfway through. For the most part, in attempting a creepy dose of deep, existentially-philosophizing chills, von Trier neglects the killer and his kills.