3 out of 5

Director: György Pálfi

Taxidermia is about several things. It essentially focuses on the males from three generations of a family during three different eras in Hungary. However, as a doubly-voiced (in two different languages) narrative states at the beginning, there are several pieces coming together which make sense as a whole, and are thus all individually important. Theres much disturbing content in the film for those unprepared – vomiting, skinning and gutting of animals, some guts and viscera cut up, extreme obesity, a pretty direct depiction of sex, some poop and pee, and though it shouldnt be disturbing, something thats rarely seen in non-porn – erect male genitalia. Interested? Bothered? What I found most appealing about the film was how plainly all of these things were shown. The second vignette is about speed eating, which is shoveling in tons of food, vomiting up more room, then going back for more. Its played slightly for laughs, but the characters have a conversation during the vomiting and it just happens like its business as usual. All of the disgusting scenes have this flavor of normalcy, and I really admired that – it kept it from feeling exploitative, as though these details were (and are) just parts of the story, nothing more. Anyhow, its hard to go too much more into this, as it does play out somewhat dreamlike – there are some really fantastic elements of longing, and obsession, and misplaced / transferred emotions, and its woven fascinatingly between the three generations. The only thing that keeps it at three stars (as opposed to four) is that it doesnt really involve the viewer. You can watch this and not have to think about it – its shot wonderfully and the Amon Tobin score is so awesome that it can pass by in 90 minutes pretty easily. I would watch this again with a friend.