Alex van Warmerdam is back with a new film, and if the idea of a hitman movie sounds rather conventional after the surprises and twists of BORGMAN, you can be sure that the Dutch director has a very original and entertaining spin on the material in SCHNEIDER VS BAX.

Schneider (Tom Dewispelaere) has been hired by Mertens (Gene Bervoets) to carry out a hit on a writer named Bax (Alex Van Warmerdam). The job comes at an inconvenient time, as it’s Schneider’s birthday and his wife and children evidently don’t know the nature of his real occupation. Schneider assures them that he will be back for the party, as they are expecting guests, and sets off to eliminate his target, not anticipating any difficulties.

But unknown to Schneider, and to Bax’s family, Bax is not really a writer, but is also a hitman. Mertens has warned him that Schneider is on his way, hoping that he can be lured into a trap so that Bax can kill him. This is a bit inconvenient for Bax as well, since his daughter is arriving and he needs to get his girlfriend out of the cabin he is currently occupying on the edge of a swamp in the Dutch wetlands.

Only one hitman will come out of this situation alive…

Hitman versus hitman, it’s as simple as that (so simple that the film doesn’t feel the need to come up with any convincing reason why Mertens wants one or both of them killed), but inevitably it also becomes a little more complicated than that, as other people have a tendency to unexpectedly turn up at inconvenient times (bizarre characters, every one of them) and get in the way. With the older Bax increasingly reliant on drugs to keep him on edge, all this has the potential of turning into a complete bloodbath.

But a disconcertingly funny one. Not only to the directing the film but also writing it, composing the score and taking on the role of Bax himself – and taking a change of pace from his usual method of returning to theatre direction between films – Alex van Warmerdam and his characters play this potentially ludicrous situation as straight as you can manage it while still inviting you to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

SCHNEIDER VS BAX doesn’t operate on the multiple levels of social commentary and satire that the director’s previous film BORGMAN seemed to suggest. The absurd comedy premise of the film is mostly situational, but van Warmerdam makes great use of the cabins and the swamp location with its high reeds, having the characters move back and forth in heated daylight through this murky situation as one or the other gains the upper hand. Only one hitman will come out of this situation alive… you can safely say, though, that it doesn’t turn out exactly the way Mertens planned.

httpvh://youtu.be/PAR_eHWnJBI