Rent Nitram (2021)

The joy of film. Not. - Nitram review by Alphaville

A ‘slow burn’ trumpets the trailer. Yep, you know what that means. A slow, bleak, actorly film about mental illness that ends in mass murder. However well-meant, is this really what you want from a viewing experience? Do check out the trailer first. That should be enough to put you off.

Disturbing Study of a Mass Killer - Nitram review by GI

A deeply unsettling drama based on the true story of Martin Bryant, a mentally disturbed man who carried out Australia's bloodiest massacre in 1996. The film charts the life of Martin, nicknamed Nitram at his school, and his dysfunctional family life with a weak father and shrill, hard-nosed mother, who has long since despaired of getting any love from her son and is acutely aware of his mental instability. Caleb Landry Jones plays Nitram as a belligerent young man whose behaviour lacks normal boundaries. He is befriended by a reclusive and wealthy woman, Helen (Essie Davis) and moves into her somewhat ramshackle large house. When she is killed in a road crash Nitram inherits her wealth and has access to enough money to begin collecting an arsenal of guns. Director Justin Kurzel stays away from showing the actual massacre which takes place at the film's end and off camera. This is arguably a good decision and one that prevents the awful events from becoming glorified although other film's that have depicted mass killers have included the event with positive and deliberately shocking results such as 22 July (2018) and Polytechnique (2019). This is a descent into madness narrative with a disturbing central performance and three other great ones from Judy Davis and Anthony LaPaglia as the parents and Davis as Helen. The film leaves open questions as to the whether Bryant was evil or just behaviourally ill and it's interesting to discover at the film's end that he didn't commit suicide like many mass killers or killed by the police but remains in prison to this day. The key message delivered though is the issue of gun control and ownership. From the scene where he is allowed by a gun dealer to buy weapons without the necessary licence to the quick decision by the Australian Government to restrict gun types and ownership after the killings. A strong, compelling character study, worth checking out.

A film which I simply couldn't bear to watch, although this is not necessarily a negative... - Nitram review by Timmy B

Occasionally, you will watch a film which is competently made, full of great performances, had a powerful (and in this case true,) story but which you cannot sit through, because you simply cannot bear to keep watching because it makes you so uncomfortable. And to be clear, I am not talking about some of the absolute garbage, straight to DVD rubbish which you feel is making you more stupid the longer you watch. I am speaking about films where the tension or subject matter just makes you so uncomfortable, you decide this film isn't for you. Those types of films come along relatively rarely, and I have watched a lot of challenging & controversial films (many of which I have loved,) but Nitram was for me simply unwatchable.

Nitram is a stylised drama about the perpetrator of the Australian Port Arthur massacre, Martin Bryant. Martin (the title Nitram comes from the bullies who called him that/his name said backwards, due to his educational special needs,) is an extremely developmentally challenged young man. He is prone to fits of anger & is obsessed with fireworks/explosions. He also has no sense of danger or responsibility, setting off fireworks in school playgrounds and attempting to give explosives to the kids. His home life is difficult & fractured, his father a gentle, kind man who worries himself sick with the mental disabilities his son has; his mother a cold & abrasive woman who has in many ways simply given up & shows her son almost no love or affection. The film builds up to the tragic consequences of Martin's boiling anger & rage.

From the moment this film starts, there is a tension in the air. And it is unlike almost any other tension you could imagine. When I think of the most pressurised & intense films I have watched, which include some of my top 10 such as Sexy Beast & United 93, none of them invoke the same unease & discomfort Nitram does. But whilst the previous films I've mentioned use that tension expertly, this film simply puts it on screen & it engulfs you. Martin is, in this film, an absolute demonic creature of hell, partly due to his disabilities and also the relentless bullying which he has put up with in his short life. He is now in many ways completely unmanageable as a person, totally unpredictable & with no sense of danger or responsibility. Metaphorically speaking, if he was put into a room with grenades, he would start pulling the pins out & throwing them out of the windows.

And the longer this went on, the more I simply did not want to watch it. However, the reason I give it 3 stars is because in many ways, as a film which looks at the tragic events leading up to the bloodbath, it really made me feel it. I didn't want to keep watching, partly because of what I knew would be the result, but also because I hated the world this film thrust me in to. So in that respect, the film-makers absolutely achieved their goal, even though they would have wanted me to watch to the end.

Caleb Landry Jones, who richly deserved the awards he won, vanishes beneath the long, unkempt hair & hatred which Martin wears like a second skin. The only other performance I had seen him in was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, as the innocent & horny ad manager. But we are in very different territory here. Happiness & fun is a distant memory, replaced by rage & fury.

For some, this reaction may be a recommendation to watch it. And I absolutely respect that. But you may reach the end and wish you hadn't pressed play...