The Wounds

Cross Dusan Makavejev's Montenegro with Peter Medak's The Krays and you'll get The Wounds, a--and I don't say this lightly--brilliant, brutal and ferociously funny new film by Pretty Village, Pretty Flame director Srdjan Dragojevic. Kraut (Dusan Pekic) and 'Pinki' (Milan Maric), two young gangster wannabes stripped of a legitimate future by international sanctions enacted on their Serbian homeland, adopt as their mentor the flashy local black marketeer Dickie (Dragan Bjelogrlic, in a maniacally over-the-top performance). Dickie mainlines danger--and eventually heroin, which proves his downfall--but not before hatching a couple of natural born killers who make Ronald and Reggie Kray look like Wally and the Beaver. Boasting a dynamite supporting cast (especially Miki Manojilovic, as Pinki's perennially beset father, and Vesna Trivalic, as a sultry talk show host who celebrates society's underbelly), and a visual style as slick as Dickie's Versace suits, The Wounds is the most exciting and wildly hilarious film I've seen in some time. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (S. C. Sickles)