REVIEW - MISS VIOLENCE (ALEXANDROS AVRANAS)

It's easy to dismiss what Alexandros Avranas is doing in Miss Violence as exploitative. Its arch minimalism, interrupted by glimpses of graphic gratuitousness, feels very much like a deliberate attempt to provoke, to revolt whilst seducing with its slick style, on behalf of Avranas. Must one wonder what drove him to delve into such depravity? For if there isn't really a 'tasteful' way to depict this manner of 'tasteless' activity, then isn't it right that his method revolts us? Its effect is potent, when Avranas properly pushes our buttons, though pathetic when that method seems to be the only thing he's pushing. As an emotional exercise, Miss Violence is excellent art, though as art itself, it's derivative and overly experimental. Avranas' technique and his intentions don't mesh very well - his film is at its strongest when it concerns itself with its characters, and ditches its delusions in favour of soul-searching close-ups and cathartic incidents. Maybe these are unnecessarily grand, or maybe they only seem that way when juxtaposed with such spare filmmaking, but there's considerable emotive power in Avranas' humanistic touches. But if his pretensions are generally well-developed, they're at odds with that strain of his film, and there's a few clangers in his arsenal of directorial flourishes (a camera rotation around a slapping session is just comical). And if you're searching for a more 'legitimate' context in which to rationalise Avranas' sensationalism, there's an ample serving of allegory in his subtext, as older generations abuse younger ones, debasing them in order to raise themselves, as excuses for their faults and failings. If the only way you might excuse the more unsettling content in his scenario is by recognising it as a narrative representation of his anger, on one hand grow up, on the other hand you'd be on the right tracks in doing so. Anger leads many of us to do disturbing things. Had Alexandros Avranas better harnessed that anger, he could have created a bona fide modern Greek tragedy.