Oh Abel...

Ms. 45(dir. Abel Ferrara)
This is Abel Ferrara's show since none of the acting is really that great, the cinematography lacks polish, and the script is pretty awful compared to King of New York. The lead character becomes more and more unlikeable as it goes along due to the fact she turns into a victim of two vicious rapes to a maniac who kills men in cold blood just because they are men. You could say the film could be viewed as feminism gone wrong. The acting from some of her victims is actually really good because the actors display a sort of sleazy charm and likeability to make their murders feel unjustified, but you can easily understand how she could murder them in cold blood because of their sleazy nature. In the middle portion, she almost takes a superhero type stance with her murders like killing a pimp beating his hooker and killing a gang of thugs. Her murders become more and more puzzling and off-putting until it goes to the final massacre that is portrayed in unflincing slow motion that makes the whole scene excruciating, which is exactly how the scene should have been portrayed. The most glaring flaws are the characters of the annoying neighbor and her dog. They're easily some of the most obnoxious characters ever put to film. It's easy to see them as a device to create suspense about the possibility that Thana might get caught, but the film's conclusion shows that they are truly unnecessary to the story. The final image is kind of ironic just because it shows that she sympathized with a dog more than all of her male victims, but it doesn't make the characters feel necessary to the plot especially given the cringe-inducing nature of the actress's performance of the neighbor and that disgusting scene with the dog. A decent effort, which could have greatly improved if it eliminated those two characters and made the final product more clean and lean.
**1/2 out of ****