Revenge (2017)

It's a film that manages to leer at its scantily clad heroine only to eventually make you root for her to dish out as much bloody punishment as possible.

Though the film makes a valiant effort to subvert a sexist formula by shrouding itself in French art film trappings and pseudo-empowering femininity, it ultimately falls prey to its exploitative roots.

Ah, but is it a good revenge movie? Oui, vraiment, and one that doesn't leave you feeling particularly sordid.

Revenge is a brutal, bloody, exhilarating work that does not even for a moment blink.

Coralie Fargeat tears into the rape revenge genre with a startling ferocity in her debut feature, the brutal, bloody and beautiful "Revenge."

The film is going to strain your suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. But if you can get past one particular event, you're going to find Revenge a madcap, satisfying thrill ride.

Revenge is a dish that's best served cold but a very bloody one in the case of Coralie Fargeat's feature directorial debut...a marvelous performance by Matilda Lutz...

Revenge is smartly made.

With Revenge, Fargeat has waved a blistering middle finger at rape culture and rape culture's enablers. Revenge isn't hers alone. It's womanhood's, too.

It's a ludicrously gory, over-the-top, woman-on-a-rampage grindhouse film... and I kind of loved it.

The only real surprise is the sheer volume of gore: If gouged eyeballs, exploded heads, impaled torsos, and beautiful naked people flailing through pools of vital fluids are what you crave, you will be a fan, and I won't judge you.

Revenge's story doesn't reinvent the rape/vengeance genre all by itself, it's Fargeat's choices as a filmmaker that set this film apart from the rest.