We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

June 16, 2022 8:40 PM

Kevin's mother (Tilda Swinton) struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin (Ezra Miller) is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined.

Currently streaming in the US on Amazon Prime, Hoopla, Tubi, Kanopy, Plex, Crackle, and various others. Sitting at 75% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

posted by DirtyOldTown (13 comments total)

Even outside of [everything Ezra Miller], this movie will ruin your whole goddam day.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:56 PM on June 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

heartbreaking. fine performances throughout. solid A. but damn.
posted by j_curiouser at 10:02 PM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

In retrospect, a fitting role for Ezra Miller.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:43 PM on June 16, 2022 [5 favorites]

I enjoyed the book very much and I also enjoyed the way the movie went much further into the horror genre. Yeah I had no idea who Ezra Miller was the first time I watched it, but just his presence does a lot to make it horror.

I am trying to figure out if it's a coincidence that Gone Girl, another book heavy with unreliable narration, turns much more into horror on the screen. Or is this common when books that feature a crime are adapted?
posted by BibiRose at 5:25 AM on June 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

Randy Newman's just going for the paycheck these days.
posted by whuppy at 8:03 AM on June 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

most traumatizing movie I have ever seen jmfc!
posted by supermedusa at 8:15 AM on June 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

I can't claim to have originated this, I think I read it on the blue - for a movie called We Need to Talk About Kevin, the parents spent a lot of time avoiding talking about Kevin
posted by Molesome at 12:49 PM on June 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

I think that's the point...
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:06 PM on June 17, 2022 [4 favorites]

whuppy: that song is horrifically funny, in that it is both horrific and funny
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:07 PM on June 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

like lighthouse, an amazing film i will never watch again.
posted by j_curiouser at 9:06 PM on June 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

Thinking back, the most painful, disturbing scene in this film is when Tilda Swinton's character is at some sort of work party or something and politely declines a co-worker's offer to dance or to go for a drink (something to that effect, it's been a while since I've seen it), and he immediately erupts in total vicious hatred. That moment chilled and horrified me more than any other.
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:19 PM on June 21, 2022

I haven't seen this film. The descriptions I see online are disturbing. Does it rehash the problematic *neurodivergent child ruins parents' lives* trope that many find so touching? Or the equally *ambivalent mother causes child's mental health issues*?

Or does it deal with these questions in a more complex way than is apparent from the reviews?
posted by Zumbador at 9:38 PM on August 11, 2022

@Zumbador: It's fundamentally about how the line between those two things is unknowable.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:01 AM on January 5, 2023 [1 favorite]