Movie Review – Two Pigeons [SXSW]

I’m not exactly what I thought I would see as I began the film Two Pigeons, but it was certainly not what I ended up seeing. A young man living in a flat alone begins to realize things are off, what he doesn’t know is that he’s not the only one living there. No, the other entity is not a spirit or a figment of his imagination but a real live (incredibly thin, truly bordering on eating disorder) homeless man.
All in all, there’s not much to the plot. Hussein pretty much gives off scumbag vibes when his life begins to go to crap – his girlfriend breaks up with him, he is being charged for things he did not purchase, his boss is furious with him, and that’s not even mentioning all the icky things he doesn’t know about. We’re talking, touching Hussein’s personal items with body parts… yes, that icky. Meanwhile, the homeless man is having a ball when Hussein leaves, he even oddly narrates the voices of two pigeons that sit on the balcony daily.
The tone of the film is dark and very slow. I love horror films but I would not call this horror. It’s not one I particularly would watch again, or even know how to categorize. Perhaps, suspense? One can never tell what films will garner a huge cult-like following so this could in fact be a cult classic type film because other than that, I’m not exactly sure who would enjoy this.
The acting was okay while the plot was lackluster. I think the film (while the man in the walls type narrative has been done before) had the potential to be really creepy and enjoyable if paced correctly, but sadly it never quite figured out where it was going. Overall, I think I would have preferred a film about the pigeons.