Pulpmovies reviews "Maximum Shame"

"Maximum Shame is a film packed with both ideas and obsessions, expressed by deliberately outlandish characters existing in an absurdist environment beyond time and space. The result is incredibly engaging on both a visceral and an intellectual level, but it has caused me some problems in trying to put together a coherent review.
It is probably true of most films that the less you know beforehand, the more you will enjoy the experience. Not knowing where things are leading allows you to appreciate the plot as it develops and, often, become more engaged with the characters as they face the challenges that the narrative places in front of them. For a minority of these films, the narrative and characters are so different to anything you have seen before that not knowing too much becomes almost crucial. Maximum Shame falls very squarely into this category. Because of this I find myself more than a little wary of giving away too much information.
What I can tell you is that the film centres on a couple (played by Paco Moreno and Ana Mayo) who are individually drawn into a Labyrinthine warehouse dominated by a roller-skate wearing dominatrix (Marina Gatell) known only as The Queen. This environment exists in a limbo between reality and fantasy where the normal rules of time and space have ceased to apply, and it’s here that The Queen uses her denizens as pieces in a chess-inspired game, the rules of which are never made clear. Or maybe The Queen is merely a piece in someone else’s game – the game, as with every other element in the film is as open to interpretation as you want it to be.
This is a film in which symbolism is richly layered to create an environment dense with information and implication but also one which, superficially at least, is surprisingly easy to follow. The more that you engage with the film, however, and the more willing you are to run with the ideas being explored, the deeper it becomes."
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Read the whole review at Pulpmovies

Carlos Atanes website: www.carlosatanes.com