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Here's Tromatonic's review of THE ART OF PAIN. (Spoiler alert.)

Viewing "The Art of Pain" is a mindboggling experience. Constantly things are happening that are not expected. If all you want is rediculously expensive effects on giant screens in multiplexes and don’t care too much about either plot or characterization I advise you to see the next new overhyped blockbuster. If you understand that some films are made for less money but care for an interesting story, unexpected twists, great acting, good dialog and an original script (not to mention inventive directing of a kind that several overpaid Hollywood directors can take a hint from), "The Art Of Pain" is the one to check out!!

At first people may expect a film that is like many in it’s supposed "genre", as all the elements fans of modern horror are looking for are there. A brilliant twist of this film, however, is that they are never used in a way remotely like most other titles. The ninja’s are a beautiful metaphor for the rediculous way westerners are into everything that comes from various eastern cultures and make it their own – including an obviously American sensei who merely uses his eastern way of life as an excuse to release his cruelty. It is not strange that one of the pupils of his lessons that are way too far removed from their origins, doesn’t understand what it is all about anymore. Zombies in an empty movie-theater seem to represent their own audiences, resulting in a feeling of vertigo from the maelstrom of art and life imitating each other. Comics, always popular with many "genre-movie" fans find their way into this script in a natural way, with a fine nod to "Skunk Ape", the first film Brookens made with his brother Greg -who plays a beautiful part in "The Art Of Pain"- and which is available on the DVD "The Best Of Tromadance vol. 3".

"Great art comes from great pain" is a line delivered by a brilliantly cast Lloyd Kaufman (not without a lot of pain himself from being blacklisted by the big conglomerates and thus having great difficulty to have his masterpieces made available to the general audiences). Indeed the fact that the best art painter Jack delivers in the film is the result of pain suffered and inflicted by a third party seems to wonderfully depict the way the movie business works.

The hellish boredom of a job that is absolutely not fullfilling resulting in the lack of inspiration once the real life can start after office-hours is something many viewers will be able to relate to. The need to do someting more with your life, but feeling drained out of all energy by a seemingly senseless dayjob is something I experienced for quite some years.

In the 30 minute "Skunk Ape" it was already very clear the Brookens Brothers had a superb Pythonesque sense of humor, and a way of making the most seemingly far fetched subjects come together in a storyline – here their abilities are even stretched much further. The many layers that can be read underneath the story are a great thing in themselves, but the way the film builds to unexpected heights is unique. It certainly doesn’t take a straight road. For a careless viewer the story might develop slowly, but in the end everything turns out to be there for a good reason as we reach the unexpected finale.

The brilliant life-like dialogs make every second interesting, and the whole thing so much more realistic. There are moments where the film works like a Frank Zappa composition, never restiricting itself to the limits of just one "genre". When you are dragged into the seriously delivered acting and the suspense of the storyline, you are suddenly put on the wrong foot entirely as at moments you least expect it the film suddenly bursts into hilarious and surrealistic humorous scenes that are sometimes even so short the next tense scene has already started before you have fully realised there was something different there for a while.