Line #4 Film/ExDrummer


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/drummerposter_8354.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:His world is most literally [[InvertedPortrait turned on its head]].]]
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4	''Ex Drummer'' is a Flemish film from 2007, somewhere in between surrealist drama and very dark (tragi-) comedy, written and directed by Koen Mortier and based on the book of the same name by Creator/HermanBrusselmans. Apart from its explicit depictions of sex and violence and its somewhat misanthropic attitude, the film is also noted for its iconic soundtrack with songs from several local and international alternative, punk and metal acts.
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6	Cynical best-selling author Dries Vanhegen is one day approached by three ragged lower-class men who want to hire him as a drummer for their punk rock band; their trademark being having more or less obvious handicaps. The men in question are Koen de Geyter, a lisping skinhead with sadistic tendencies and a virulent hatred for women; furthermore Jan Verbeek, a homosexual with a stiff arm, serious mother issues and a psychotic father he needs to keep confined in a straightjacket; and finally Ivan Van Dorpe, a near-deaf drug addict with an equally unhinged wife and a baby daughter she keeps silent by feeding her hashish. Intrigued at the prospect of a new story, Dries decides to join them and descend into their world of filth and squalor. As for his own handicap, he pretends being an incompetent drummer. From then on, the four men go by the name "The Feminists".
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10	!! ''Ex Drummer'' contains the following tropes:
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12	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: The Feminists' handicaps: Koen is a lisping psychopath. Jan has a stiff arm. Ivan is near-deaf. Dries? He cannot play the drums.
13	* BackToFront: Taken to the max with the long intro scene, which is played almost completely in reverse and shows Koen, Jan and Ivan on their way to Dries, mostly walking and riding bicycles, all backwards.
14	* BiggerOnTheInside: A very bizarre example with Dikke Lul's wife Erna: He tells her to show Dries (and the audience) her lady parts. [[spoiler: The next scene takes place ''inside'' her tunnel-sized vagina, with Dikke Lul showing Dries around.]]
15	* BlackComedyRape: After a gig, Dikke Lul is being offered sex by a male groupie. [[spoiler: What starts off consensual soon turns into Dikke Lul brutalising the poor boy's behind, who ends up wearing diapers for the rest of the film.]]
16	* BrainBleach: Koen has a crush on Jan's fat, bald mother and fantasises about having sex with her. Naturally, Jan doesn't want to hear any of it. [[spoiler: When Koen eventually gets into Ma Verbeek's pants and Jan catches them making out, he immediately runs to the toilet to vomit.]]
17	* CastingGag - Famous Flemish rock musician Arno has a cameo under the name of "Aldo", interpreting one of his more unorthodox songs in a decidely rancid way.
18	* CrapsackWorld: The film takes place in a surreal version of the Flemish lower class; drugs, violence and general depravity define everyday life and people consider verbal and physical abuse their standard form of communication.
19	* DeadPersonConversation: Several characters who get killed in the film take a short moment to [[BreakingTheFourthWall adress the audience]] and give some insight into their lives and motivations. [[spoiler:[[NightmareFuel They still have the wounds from their brutal deaths]]. One person is talking with his face half blown off, another muses over his gigantic penis that lies torn off in front of him on a table.]]
20	* DeadpanSnarker: Dries spends most of the time firing [[StealthInsult stealth insults]] at his fellow musicians and their friends and families.
21	* GagPenis: Dikke Lul ("Big Dick") bears this name for a reason.
22	* GoryDiscretionShot: Almost completely averted. While in the intro a scene of Koen pounding a woman's face with a brick is mercifully kept in the dark, the rest of the film doesn't shy back from gratuitous violence.
23	* GroinAttack: Dikke Lul ends up [[spoiler: losing his massive member along with his life when a rape attempt backfires horribly.]]
24	* InvertedPortrait: A strange case of a metaphor turned diegetic: Inside his rundown flat, Koen literally lives on the ceiling. He even has a dialogue with Dries who keeps talking up to him from the ground. [[spoiler: Eventually, his state leads to a scene where he desperately tries do climb down the walls, only to fall back up again and again, and eventually tries to commit suicide in a bathtub he had mounted to the ceiling.]]
25	* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Dries never makes any bones about his contempt for the other Feminists and their social environment, but really crosses the MoralEventHorizon in the end [[spoiler: when he incites a killing spree and has almost all other major characters murdered.]]
26	* MeaningfulName: Dries proposes the name "The Feminists" for the band, arguing that four ambiguously handicapped losers are worth "little more than four feminist twats".
27	* SoundtrackDissonance: The final minutes of the film follow a violent rampage, accompanied by a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRxdNPkEKPA melancholic rock ballad]] that only in the end develops into something more intense and fitting.

Context Film / ExDrummer