I swear, roughly twenty-five minutes into Irréversible I almost turned it off. No kidding, I thought I was going to have a freaking aneurysm due to how Gaspar Noé overstresses his shooting techniques to a position of blistering nausea. And hell, if the movie continued to be that freakin’ dimly lit for the rest of its runtime (and I thought Solo: A Star Wars Story was dark) I was guaranteed to combust. Seriously, you could barely make out a damn thing and the inducement of the camera twists legitimately made me want to hurl. Butttttt, when you finish the movie you kind of put one and two together and ultimately figure out that these stomach-turning methods were used to exclaim a chief point breathing within this unhinged film.
Wait, and one more thing that can’t go without say before I get into my consensus about Irréversible as a whole. About another couple more minutes in, I almost completely stopped this movie again due to “that scene.” Yes, “that scene”—if you’ve seen the film you know exactly which one I’m talking about. While it is fabricated in a manner that is meant to truly put a scar on its viewers’ eyes for the sake of the movie’s memo, it is a sequence that I don’t *personally* find warrantable. If the film’s job was to cause you to feel repulsed to death then good on its part but, f*** you movie anyhow for even having it. Also, it’s extensive. I was about to shatter my television screen if “that scene” went on any longer.
Anyways, once you get past “that scene” the movie starts getting really good, mainly because everything starts coming full circle and most of that sickening material that this movie force-feed you previously begins to appear justifiable.
The acting, writing, editing, and a majority of the directing is truly a cinematic victory. I must emphasize how faultless the actors and actresses’ performances are attributable to Noé’s ingenious, hard-nosed direction and screenplay. There are continuous long takes in this movie that frankly stupefied me because of how proficient the actors and actresses can remember their sweepingly broad lines and how they incorporate such convincing improvisations. Also, the commitment and stretch that some of these performers have to carry in order to accomplish Noé’s disturbing vision is, in an odd perspective, commendable. If there’s one factor that nobody can deny, it’s that Noé has a way with making theatrically portrayed human scenarios come across as seeming severely realistic.
But in the long run, despite this being one mouthful of an impressive engineering in filmmaking, I am, in all likelihood, never going to watch Irréversible again. Or at least, never sit through the painful first half of this movie which burdens all of the grotesque fragments of Noé’s piece. But never say never, am I right?
Gaspar Noé recycles Christopher Nolan’s gimmick from Memento with a—while not as authoritative nor superior—disastrous twist. Conclusively, Irréversible is a fiercely macabre showcase of Gaspar Noé’s superlative edge. And jeez, that ending will gash you, like it did me, in the gut, hard. And wowww, that last shot. Perfecto.
Initial Verdict: B
New Verdict: A-
Monica Bellucci is the OG Gal Gadot.
Also, shoutout to Thomas Bangalter, one of the members of my childhood favorite band Daft Punk, for the score.
Okay, this is kind of off topic but, right when I finished watching Gaspar Noè’s Enter the Void, this extremely exotic-looking bug that sort of looked like a ladybug with yellow and red dots appeared on my bathroom window. Now get this. Right when I finished , Irréversible (nearly a week later) the same exact type of bug appeared on my window again. I don’t know about you guys, I’m not a very superstitious person myself but, it’s staring to scare me and if I see it again after I watch Love or Climax I am going to freak the f*** out!
“Irréversible” is now available to rent and buy on Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, Amazon Prime, and iTunes.
Burning the Celluloid 
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