Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable
Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!
Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Michael Ledo Jennifer (Mary Loveless) and Jill (Bethany Orr) are the odd couple. Jennifer is a model and Jill is 130 pound bulimic. Jill's mother suffers from substance abuse and Jill is clearly not wrapped too tight. Jennifer has gotten out of an abusive relationship and mistreats Jill. Jennifer pushes Jill until we reach the picture on the DVD cover.We get a lot of close ups of the girls eating and smacking their lips, talking while eating, and spitting out their food. They rented the apartment with the chains in the wall, something that must be an option in LA.I imagine this is supposed to me a story of two abused people who come to live together and make matters worse. I got bored watching them eat scene after scene after scene. More drama than thriller. It was like watching "Knock Knock" without the guy plus food.Guide: F-word, sex, nudity (Bethany Orr, Mary Loveless)
Robert B Edmondson Most reviewers have gotten it right as far as the acting and style on this movie, so I won't add much as far as that goes.If you watch this one more than once, it should be obvious that the story is not about two roommates, but one woman struggling with body dysmorphia.The character's name is Jill, but she looks like Jennifer. The Jennifer personality may have been her original personality, or it may have been created as a defense mechanism to hide all the feelings of confidence and self worth, while loading up the other personality with guilt, regret, and self loathing. This was created during or after her marriage to an emotionally abusive partner who, as it is depicted in the extremely twisted and weird reality sex show sequence, would constantly tell her how disgusting and unattractive she was. This created Jill. The personality that binge eats.This is made clear through several key scenes. The two scenes where Jill and Jennifer are both in the presence of someone else (waking up with Rob, and on the curb with the police), Jennifer goes unnoticed and does not speak or even move. She is not acknowledged by anyone but Jill.Then, in the scene where Jill opens her front door and the woman snaps cell phone photos of her, the photos are shown later to actually be photos of Jennifer. Despite that the woman's name is actually Jill, Jill is the one who does not exist in physical form. The appearance of Jill is a mental manifestation of her body dysmorphia.Then finally in the last scene, when Jill injects the talent agent with that nasty Draino stuff she concocted, she leans over, and once again, you can see in the reflection that it's Jennifer.
PimpinAinttEasy Excess Flesh is about two roommates - one a mildly overweight woman with no self confidence and the other a beautiful and promiscuous woman, who feed off each other. The emptiness and cruelty of modern life underscored by an excessive concern about the way one looks and what one eats is one of the major themes of this film. I was reminded of this quote by Michel Housellebecq - "Sexuality is a system of social hierarchy" while watching Excess Flesh. Fans of Houellebecq's work and the Irvine Welsh novel Sex Lives of Siamese Twins might enjoy Excess Flesh, which is not really a horror film.The director's style - lots of close ups to underscore the grotesque culture of gluttony grated on my nerves after a while. Most of the action takes place indoors because the overweight girl rarely leaves her apartment and the film is told from her point of view. The dramatic indoor scenes are interspersed with visuals of large city buildings and streets - I'm not sure what they were supposed to indicate. The performances were decent I guess. But frankly, I wouldn't recognize any of the actors if they turned up in another film.(4/10)
mjsreg I have mixed feelings about this film.The acting is good and the basis of the story is good. But the execution of bringing them together with technical aspects of film making lets it down and they just don't work together nicely in a smoothly coherent way.There are lingering scenes which linger for no reason. They go on too long after the point has been made and don't really flow into the next scene too well. I found at times there were some scene cuts that could have done with a little more visual explanation to flow - rather than abruptly jump from one concept to another.This could have been a very good film if a bit more care had been taken in telling the story. I am sure it made sense in the crew's mind but they didn't relay it to the audience.The acting was good - especially the two lead females.Such a shame.
