The Greasy Strangler

Its willful determination to be outré proves its undoing.

The best thing about "The Greasy Strangler": that title. The worst thing about "The Greasy Strangler": everything that follows that title.

Is any of this funny? Sometimes, though not often. Is that intentional? Well, that's debatable. Is it worth seeing? Yes, but only if you enjoy being grossed out.

An ugly and frequently hilarious descent into all things repellent, the debut feature from director Jim Hosking plants itself firmly in a world of filth and shock.

There are people out there who find gross-out internet videos funny, and these people will wholeheartedly embrace Jim Hosking's feature directorial debut.

Hosking knows how to grab our attention, but not hold it in a meaningful way.

Like the faceless strip malls and broken vending machines of its setting, The Greasy Strangler is the manifestation of Americana's inescapable shallowness, rendered down and smeared across the screen.

The Greasy Strangler needs to be seen on the smallest screen possible, with the sound off.

...a unique film by an emergent auteur that truly wallows in the abject and is all the better for it.

Most of the humor derives from the aggressively depraved presentation, which is hard to sustain for 90 minutes. But as trashy, you-gotta-see-this provocations go, well, you gotta see it.

Bonkers, and destined to be an instant cult item, which raises the question of whether you can design a movie to be cult.

It's vile, it's intrusive, and it's annoying, but it's strikingly, creatively, and impressively so. And, to boot, really freakin' weird.