Ex Drummer Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Ex Drummer Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 19, 2025

Trainspotting had a profound impact on viewers when it released in 1996 (I still can't scrub the baby scene out of my brain no matter how hard I try), as did SLC Punk in 1998 (Bob!), which garnered less attention and less of an audience yet was no less resonant, often in spite of its ultra-indie production value. The former focused on drug-addled hooligans, the latter the punk rock scene in Salt Lake City. And its drug-addled hooligans. Ex Drummer plays like a melding of the two, with a through line of psychological mayhem and madness for good measure. It doesn't stand as a morality tale, or really take much of a moral position. Its amorality is arguably part of its allure. It's also a tough watch, unspooling more and more as it rolls along, ultimately coming to a stop in a place far from anywhere anyone would like to find themselves.

Three punk pariahs in Ostend, West Flanders -- Koen de Geyter (Norman Baert), Ivan Van Dorpe (Sam Louwyck) and Jan Verbeek (Gunter Lamoot) -- begin looking for a drummer. Simple, right? Hardly. Each of the band members is disabled. The lead guitarist is deaf, the bass player has a bum arm, and the singer can't sing. Their goal then? To find a disabled drummer. When they can't find one, they come up with a cheat: choose someone who can't play drums. What better drumming disability could there be? With the gods of punk rock apparently pleased with the idea, the band approaches Dries, a popular writer whose arrogance and upper-crust life make him the unlikeliest of candidates. But what could be more punk than a drummer who's never played the drums? Fascinated by the strange, drug-addled, alcohol-steeped men, to say nothing of their chaotic and violent lives, and hoping they'll inspire a new novel, the manipulative Dries agrees to play with their newly formed band, dubbed The Feminists, to see what comes of it all. However, what comes -- before and after a battle-of-the-bands competition The Feminists are gunning to win -- is not at all what Dries expects or the band envisions.

Dries is a fascinating proxy into Koen Mortier's world of disillusioned, disabled punk rock, where bands vie to be the hardest, the raunchiest, the most anarchic; where respect is gained through screams, beats and fuck-it-all abandon. He's not only a complete outsider, he's skeptical of the world he agrees to enter into, then manipulative of the "friends" he acquires in the hopes of furthering his own interests. He's a vampire really, which is perhaps more punk than he should get credit for. His leeching off his vomit-on-the-sleeve bandmates seems to fly in the face of the fact that they have so little he considers valuable. What they have -- the only thing they have -- is unflinching motivation and drive, something he can't quite quantify or grasp. A flagrant apathy toward what's "good" and a burning desire to deliver what's different. Their passion and commitment is their power; their dedication to their craft come hell or deaf water. It makes Dries an alien in every way, no matter how much he tries to adapt to his surroundings, and it's in that pursuit that the film begins to bobble between right and wrong, music and ambition, integrity and maleficence. Dries is most definitely the unspoken antagonist of Ex Drummer, but he's also the only means we have to access The Feminists, and it's that tug of "anti" hero, drummer, friend, whatever that makes it so difficult to root for his plight. But it also makes everything that transpires far more compelling than it might be otherwise.

It's also not entirely clear what Ex Drummer is going for, which can be frustrating. Is it a cautionary tale? A slice of life drama? A horror film? A psychological thriller? Or is it just a down-and-dirty music film aiming to paint a portrait of a lifestyle most of us would pass by in the street without realizing what we were stepping over? It's hard to say, and Ex Drummer isn't eager to explain itself. No matter how I tried to approach it -- a coup of talent, a flashbang art film, an unsettling descent into insanity, a cult classic rocker -- it would soon twist and wriggle out of the light, scurrying into the darkness again, leaving more questions in its wake than answers. Am I meant to root for Dries? Because God do I want him to get the hell away from people who are already this damaged. Am I meant to cheer for the band, despite their lifestyles and the collateral damage left in their wake? Am I meant to care for any of these people at all, or simply be horrified by the terrors on display? And what does Mortier have to say about the role of class, poverty and means? One minute he struck me as anti-establishment, the next as a proponent of the establishment doing more to intervene. Best, then, to sit back and let it slop over you, one disgusting wave at a time, until you tumble headlong into the credits, wondering what the hell did I just watch but grateful for the intensity of the ride.

Ex Drummer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Grungy. Grimy. Grainy. Ex Drummer features an atypical 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer that's utterly faithful to its source; faithful even to a fault. The film isn't aesthetically pleasing, in any way. No matter how you look at it, even through the lens of composition, cinematography, blocking, you name it, it's an ugly, dirty thing. But therein lies the genius of just how unassuming and apathetic it appears. Colors are stained and yellowed, looking as if each frame of film has been soaked in urine. Primaries never pop until blood begins to flow near the end of days, and black levels, though deep, seem just as lurid and sickly as the rest of the palette. Contrast borders on dull, as does saturation, and skintones are just lifelike enough (relatively speaking) to appear a hair more attractive than everything else on screen. Detail is surprisingly strong, with well-defined edges, decently revealing textures, and a sharp veneer of aggressive grain, but there are plenty of soft shots too, as the camera plays fast and loose with clarity. Fortunately, I didn't notice any blocking, banding or other encoding issues, meaning the technical transfer is sound.

Ex Drummer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The same could be said of Ex Drummer's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix, which throws fidelity to the wind and allows the soundscape to land where it may. It's a risk but one that drops the listener square in the center of the dingy environments and moldy rooms of the film. Dialogue is reasonably clear and prioritized, LFE output is heavy and quick to throttle the gas, and the rear speakers are used to immersive effect. Directionality is a bit sloppy and pans are somewhat stilted, but there's a cleverness to the lack of polish here that seems oh so intentional.

Ex Drummer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Ex Director: The Making of Ex Drummer (SD, 32 minutes) - From casting reels to behind-the-scenes footage, this half-hour production doc covers just about all the bases. Presented in Dutch with optional English subtitles.

• Director's Statement (HD, 5 minutes) - An intro from the director, donning a surgical mask. Presented in Dutch with optional English subtitles.

• Two Short Films (SD, 21 minutes) - "A Hard Day's Work" and "Ana Temnei." Optional English subtitles.

• Two Music Videos (SD, 6 minutes) - "De grotste lul van 't stad" with Flip Kowller and "Oh, Brother" with The Feminists and musicians from von Millionaire. German subtitles only.

• Performance of the Overdo Hykers (SD, 2 minutes) - A performance by the Overdo Hykers, a band that didn't make it into the final cut of the film.

• German & English Trailers (HD, 4 minutes)

Ex Drummer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ex Drummer isn't an easy film to watch, nor a simple story to unpack. It's often at odds with itself and uncertain in its messaging and tone. But there's a rawness to the performances and a singular maliciousness to its plot that proves compelling; certainly enough to hold your attention and leave you thinking about it long after the credits roll. As Blu-ray presentations go, it doesn't always look or sound the best, but it's wholly faithful to its source and its filmmakers' intentions, which is always a good thing. Add to that a decent portion of extras and you have a BD worth considering.