Film Comment Selects 2013 Review: SIMON KILLER is An American Sociopath's Last Tango in Paris

From Borderline films, the trio of producer/directors responsible for indie darling Martha Marcy May Marlene, comes the uplifting story of an American in Paris who finds solace in the thighs of a young prostitute. Simon is his name and killing is NOT his game, though it may very well someday be. Similarities aside, this is no Tango and there's nary a stick of butter, but there is role-reversal and there are thumbs. And betrayal and heartache and violence and possibly VD. Fun!

Simon Killer is the second feature from Afterschool director Antonio Campos and continues in that film's dark tradition. It takes the tired "white kid goes to Europe, finds love and/or cultural enlightenment" premise and turns it on its head. It then stomps that head into the pavement. Because why does everyone who embarks on a self-centered European Vacation have to come back a better person? What if when you went to find yourself, what you found was a loathsome, insecure wreck prone to fits of violence? No one ever tells that story.

For the record, Europe didn't turn Simon into a brutal sociopath (and I don't want the Parisian Board of Tourism breathing down my neck). Those seeds were already planted. The impetus for his sojourn is a bad breakup, of which details are slowly revealed in stalkery emails to his ex. By the time we begin to realize Simon wasn't the best boyfriend in the world, his current shackee Victoria is beginning to realize he isn't the best boyfriend in the world. And that's when shit gets ugly.