Bullhead review

Oscar-nominated rural crime flick starring Rust And Bone's Matthias Schoenaerts

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Probably the first Flemish gangster flick set in the world of the bovine-hormone mafia, Michaël R Roskam’s rural crime film is most notable for confirming Matthias Schoenaerts ( Rust And Bone ) as the actor you’d want for a Raging Bull remake.

Here he plays a bulked-up, testosterone-gobbling cattle farmer, who suffered an appalling childhood trauma and is now embroiled in a convoluted criminal plot that whips between multiple Benelux locations – with unscrupulous vegetarians and shady butchers shouting at each other in Limburgish.

Oscar-nommed last year, it chases the big themes – nature vs nurture, destiny vs free will – and displays plenty of visual imagination, but this overcooked film is in sore need of streamlining.

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