“The Kill Room” is a satirical crime movie based around art collector Patrice, portrayed by Uma Thurman, whose gallery is struggling, assassin Reggie, portrayed by Joe Manganiello, and his boss Gordon, portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson.
When Gordon meets Patrice in her art gallery, he comes up with an idea to launder the money that he and Reggie have earned through their hitman business. Gordon asks him to become a painter so they can front the money they’re earning as money they have gotten for selling paintings. Through this, however, Reggie’s artist alias, the Bagman, becomes extremely famous.
A critique of the pretentious tastes of contemporary art enthusiasts and artists, this movie attempts to satirize the effortless yet expensive pieces that are showcased as thoughtful and meaningful in galleries.
This movie’s industry rating is R, due to language, violence and drug use. It was released by Shout! Studios last month. So far, the box office has only gotten around to $82,900, which is honestly a fair amount for this movie.
Though it is entertaining and has many moments of hilarity, it lacked the nuance it was trying to achieve. This was meant to be a commentary on how well-off people will purchase any paintings they think are rare or meaningful without realizing they are being ripped off. A lot of the tropes have been used before in other movies, and the jokes that are meant to add to the moral that the movie is trying to convey were a bit redundant at times.
The effort of script writer Jonathan Jacobson and director Nicol Paone to make the characters appear smarter than the rest of society is apparent, self-righteousness exuding from many of the jokes in the movie.
The artwork that they sell is made fun of multiple times by Gordon to get the point across to the audience that they are ripping off their customers. He says the pieces “look like a Smurf wiped his ass with it.”
The holier-than-thou tone in the dialogue overshadowed some of the subtleness that was originally intended for the audience.
The cinematography wasn’t bad, though sometimes some of the scenes were either too short or dragged slightly too long. The quality of the film overall was subpar. It would have been more worth it to stream instead of wasting my money in a theater.
Though there are some visually striking moments with the art, some of the moments on screen are drab and sleep inducing. The only times I was truly caught by what was on the screen was when someone was being killed, and sometimes the kills had nothing to do with the plot. Overall, I would rate this movie a six out of 10.
