The Hater [Sala samobójców. Hejter] **** (2020, Maciej Musialowski, Vanessa Aleksander, Danuta Stenka, Agata Kulesza) – Classic Movie Review 12,817

The brilliantly chilling 2020 Polish thriller The Hater is lit up with a demonically scary central performance by Maciej Musialowski, who gives a tour de force of staring hate faces, pouring out an endless series of lies and deception.

Director Jan Komasa’s brilliantly chilling 2020 Polish thriller The Hater is lit up with a demonically scary central performance by Maciej Musialowski. He’s great, he’s so shockingly horrible. He’s very Tom Ripley, very creepy. The film-making is polished and stylish, and the writing by screen-writer Mateusz Pacewicz is clever. But all the focus is on the young star, and he gives a tour de force of staring hate faces, pouring out an endless series of lies and deception.

He is almost the whole show though the actors playing the parents (Jacek Koman, Danuta Stenka) of Gabi (Vanessa Aleksander), the girl he has taken a shine to, and especially the actress playing his awful boss Beata (Agata Kulesza) are extremely effective.

Tomasz Giemza (Maciej Musialowski) is an almost unimaginably deeply devious, duplicitous young man whose brilliant career starts when he is chucked out of Warsaw law school for plagiarism, and is dumped by the rich, influential family who are supporting him. When things go wrong, he keeps calm and carries on, digging deeply down into his devious nature for inspiration, and finding it relatively easy to manipulate others, even those who think they are really good at that themselves. But he soon uses his bugging, cell phone and computer skills to find success in the mesmerisingly dark world of social media smear tactics, gaining the confidence of the monstrous woman who runs a company that specialises in exactly this.

Scarily, he works to control the social media and Internet hate and violence as a perverted way of searching for a purpose in his life and probably as revenge on being eternally overlooked or dissed.

He targets the nice, popular gay mayoral candidate Pawel Rudnicki (Maciej Stuhr), worming his way into his organisation and his affections. But his virtual vitriol eventually has violent real-life consequences, started by him, naturally.

Basically, no one seems him coming till it’s too late. He knows exactly what to do and say to manipulate anyone, instinctively or calculatingly. He’s very good at playing on liberal guilt, but he’s happy to take on a worthy opponent of the same mindset, and he; going to win of course. This loser is a winner. More than just creepy, he is a very dangerous man. He is your worst nightmare.

The film’s got a few things on its mind (notably Internet hate, addiction and manipulation), but it keeps them bubbling under nicely, while it gets on with its story and its monster main character. It’s all pretty near impeccable. It’s certainly totally engrossing and entertaining.

March 06, 2020

Poland

135 minutes.

PG.

Also known as Suicide Room: Hater.

Pawel Rudnicki: ‘You have an interest in politics?’ Tomasz Giemza: ‘No, absolutely not.’ Pawel Rudnicki: ‘What are you interested in, then?’ Tomasz Giemza: ‘People.’

Beata Santorska: ‘Capable, smart, insolent, fast. You could do so many other things.’ Tomasz Giemza: ‘I could. But why?’

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,817

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