Surprisingly enough for a film as overtly nasty as “Cutting Moments,” its power derives largely from subtlety. Obviously Buck’s sensibilities are far removed from those of most of his fellows, and indeed, Cutting Moments” is striking for its intelligence as much as its gore quotient. Listening to the DVD audio commentary I was struck by the references to Jean-Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky and other cinematic luminaries by writer-director Douglas Buck, names most gorehound filmmakers probably couldn’t spell, much less identify. Joe Bob Briggs once stated that “I am opposed to power drills through the ear, machetes through the stomach, decapitations with barbed wire, flamethrower attacks, and mutilation with ball peen hammer, unless it’s necessary to the plot.” While there’s little in the way of a “plot” to be found in “Cutting Moments” (nor any drills through ears or barbed wire decapitations) its extreme violence IS necessary, and even integral to its corrosive portrayal of a family in extreme crisis. Yet the bloodletting of “Cutting Moments” isn’t on hand to titillate or exploit in any way (although quite a few commentators have claimed otherwise). The film is legendary for its violent content, which is extreme even by modern horror movie standards. 1996’s “ Cutting Moments” is, quite simply, one of the most powerful short films of any sort to emerge in the last 30 years.
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