I was very impressed at the intelligence and subtlety of the direction and the protagonist's portrayal in this film. I very quickly felt queasy and uncomfortable in the right way with the story - one needs to recognize that this is a larger canvas, a deeper psychological layout and one needs to wait, step back to see the bigger picture. Very well put together indeed, and hinges well on the authenticity of the performances.Recently graduated from college, ordinary American male, Simon is in France for reasons which are unclear, after a serious breakup which is unresolved for him. He appears ambivalent about his expectations for the place but possesses yearning for connection. The film follows his initially aimless wandering through overcast Paris but over the course of the film his behavior evinces troubling questions, creating a picture of complex and disquieting psychology.I have to agree with the sentiments expressed by a few other IMDb reviewers - there is a problem which is troublesome for films of this nature. Who wants to spend so much "subtle" time with such an flavorless, watery and increasingly unpleasant person? It should be recognized that these qualities are exactly what the filmmakers are aiming at. Some personality types are parasites which require a host to feel content. However, that may be a flaw, in my opinion.A realistic portrayal of everyday psychopathy can be presented from a revelatory and entertaining viewpoint casting new light into a previously hidden part of life. When it's presented in the dour, and faintly bland & vague way it's done here, it just feels like you're watching yourself, friends, family or co-workers in a way that feels less like an 'escape to the movies' and more like work. Good films make that work invisible or enjoyable. This film has very few pleasures to deliver. That too, is the perhaps filmmaker's point.I may be over simplifying my point or not making a good one, but it certainly is a problem that many artistic statements have to contend with - don't make your audience regret the time they spend with your story. If your protagonist has a troubled mind, the audience has to occasionally relate to him/her. Make that experience MORE engaging than one's own life, not less. Again, that may have been the filmmaker's point.

Brady Corbet is Simon. Simon has just arrived in Paris, heart-broken over a recent break-up and uncertain about his future. After having sex with a prostitute he manipulates his way into a serious relationship with her. A relationship that involves drugs, blackmail, betrayal and weird sex.The less you know the better this memorizing masterpiece will be to experience for the first time. This is one sick and brilliant portrait of a sociopath made up of beautiful moving pictures set to an epic soundtrack. Antonio Campos has nailed it. Perfectly paced to place us in Simon's shoes, Simon Killer is horrifying eye and ear candy. It's slow and somewhat minimalistic but it's because of this that is seems all that more real. Therefore all that more frightening.

A recent college graduate (Brady Corbet) flees to Paris after a break-up, where his involvement with a prostitute (Mati Diop) begins to reveal a potentially dark recent past.Since watching this film last night, it has been gnawing at me, and it keeps growing in my mind as something of a masterpiece. Though, to see it in that way, one must first realize this is not a film concerned with a plot, but rather with the study of one particular character. (Just do not go in thinking you can ever understand him.) Corbet was evil and gritty in "Funny Games" and may have stepped that up a notch here. The character is more subtle, more of an enigma, but this in many ways makes him creepier: is he a sociopath, a killer? We know he is a liar, and we are left doubting almost any claim he makes about his past. (Corbet's career is already legendary, also having worked with Gregg Araki and Lars von Trier, among others.) While not directly inspired by Joran van der Sloot (the Aruba man best known to Americans as the likely killer of Natalee Holloway), the creators used him as a "point of reference", and it shows. For a visual look they emulated 1970s cinema, and particularly John Cassavetes' "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" (1976). I think they nailed it.To fully "get" this movie I would need to watch it again. As I said, it grows. I like it more today than yesterday and feel like a re-exploration of the themes and characters would only add to that. Who is Simon? We may never know.

"Superficial charm and average intelligence. Untruthfulness and insincerity. Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience." All the attributes of a psychopath are handled brilliantly by Antonio Campos and executed flawlessly by Brady Corbet. This film has been on my mind for a few days as I remember the edgy scenes with actors half off the screen and my wishing I could just nudge the camera a little bit to see what's going on... although it would not have mattered. The story here is powerful and tells a tale of a manipulative and mentally unbalanced character, but that's not really why I liked the film so much. What blew my mind is the visual treatment, the blasts of audio, the unforgiving sex and the feeling I was looking at an accident I could not turn away from. Lots of similarity to the films of Haneke and Dumont but taken to the next level with an uncompromising cellphone video sensitivity.