Bastards (2013) poster
2013 · thriller · drama · noir

Bastards

Directed by Claire Denis1h 40m2013
ElsewhereIMDb6.14kRT68%Metacritic69TMDB5.7106
  • heavy
  • extreme
  • bleak
  • cold
Movie DNA

Heavy, steady, extreme thriller / drama, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Marco returns to Paris after his brother-in-law's suicide, where he targets the man his sister believes caused the tragedy – though he is ill-prepared for her secrets as they quickly muddy the waters.

Our read · Bastards (2013) reads as a heavy, steady, inventive thriller · drama · noir entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
Fingerprint

The shape of Bastards

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a dark elliptical French thriller about family revenge and buried evil.

ends unsettlingit will wreck youa slow buildgrips by minute 28attention 5/5feels its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upnuditysuicide theme

Skip it tonightYou want clear narrative or any emotional comfort tonight.

If Bastards is your film
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
Your take
Rate it
star-clip-1-0star-clip-2-0star-clip-3-0star-clip-4-0star-clip-5-0
React
Discussion

Discussion

cmd enter to post

What does your Movie DNA look like?

Rate a few films you've seen. We map your taste across the same twelve axes and find the films you'll actually want to watch tonight.

Calibrate yourself