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Netherlands · 2019
1h 23m
Director Ivo van Aart
Starring Katja Herbers, Bram Van Der Kelen, Claire Porro, Genio De Groot
Genre Comedy, Horror, TV Movie
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Columnist and author Femke is flooded with anonymous nasty messages and death threats on social media. When, one day, the hate becomes too much for her, she decides to take revenge.
Washington Post by Ann Hornaday
Unfortunately, The Columnist doesn’t live up to its initial promise: What might have been a trenchant cultural critique couched within poisonously playful genre exercise becomes an indulgence in undifferentiated rage for its own graphic sake.
The New York Times by Beatrice Loayza
The Columnist doesn’t seem to care about making a cogent statement about feminist revenge or online culture. Perhaps it just needed an excuse to carry out its bloody high jinks, which are decent fun in their own right.
CineVue by Christopher Machell
Fun, violent and cathartic, but with an air of arch self-satisfaction that misses the complexity of the debate it constructs around itself.
Van Aart and Windhorst make brief forays into interrogating the morality of what Femke is doing; they are fascinating and layered, and in too short supply. Hebers bridges many gaps with a fluid performance that moves between zippy joy and stone-faced sociopathy.
Overall, this is a sophisticated take on over-the-top material, arch but not quite Serial Mom-style campy.
The Columnist is that rare mix of comedy and horror that isn’t too cheesy or over the top.
This film throws toxic male aggression right back at them.
Paste Magazine by Natalia Keogan
The Columnist argues that silence can be more violent and political than speech.
Ivo van Aart’s movie gives full rein to that desire and is snappily directed – but in the end there is something self-satisfied and sententious about his feminist revenge flick.
Despite the film's willingness to playfully stir unrest, it never reaches its full potential, and the promise of confronting abusers who hide behind avatars gets second billing to a less exciting defense of free speech. And yet, The Columnist works because of Katja Herbers’ performance.
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