Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A young man walks into a meticulously clean and sterile bathroom and proceeds to shave away hair, then skin, in an increasingly bloody and graphic bathroom scene.
Scorsese's early short is a visceral anti-Vietnam provocation disguised as a mundane grooming ritual. Its cinematography is striking — the clinical white bathroom contrasted against escalating gore is meticulously composed and deeply unsettling. Novelty is exceptionally high: the film is a singular, unmistakable piece of counterculture body horror allegory, virtually unlike anything else in its compression and intent. The plot is essentially a single extended act with no conventional narrative, limiting its score there. Acting is minimal and largely functional — the unnamed man is more symbol than character. The ending, while deliberately bleak and on-the-nose in its political statement, lands with genuine impact even if its message is somewhat unsubtle.