We have had to watch the rich get eaten so many times in modern filmmaking that the audience is surely starting to feel indulgently full. Another attempt at satirising the sickeningly decadent lives of insufferable characters only occasionally dazzles with pulpy colour and strong visuals. At the rotting core of ROSEBUSH PRUNING, there is nothing new or purposeful to be gleaned from its boring, pointless provocations.

Accompanied by an exposition laden voiceover from middle brother Ed (Callum Turner) we follow a highly dysfunctional, abusive and obscenely rich American family who have moved to a mansion in Catalonia following their mother’s (Pamela Anderson) death (supposedly after being torn apart by wolves…?). Based on Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 cult film FISTS IN THE POCKET, Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz seeks to shock and prod the audience with harsh language and icky imagery in a modern reimagining that thinks it’s much smarter than it actually is.

Led by their domineering blind patriarch (Tracy Letts), the film is less a straightforward narrative and more a ‘vibes’ movie. Little is tied together scene-to-scene, and we are told from Ed’s voiceover that everyone in this family are self-serving, arrogant, egotists – that is except for his oldest brother, Jack (Jamie Bell). Ed’s sister Anna (Riley Keough) seems almost in love with Jack, as well as his younger brother Robert (Lucas Gage) – both deplorable people who will drape themselves over him and try to win him over through uncomfortable flirtation. Only Jack seemingly wants out of the family and has fallen for Martha (Elle Fanning), much to the despair of Anna and Robert. This sparse motivation results in the film playing out like a tiresome perfume advert in search for meaning.

“…sparse motivation results in the film playing out like a tiresome perfume advert in search for meaning.”

There is a kind of mystery element to Jack’s motivations that we see both through Ed’s perspective and moments alone with Jack himself, including a terrible twist that borders on the farcical but is meant to be taken seriously. Ed has absolutely nothing going for him as a character, despite Callum Turner’s performance; he is merely a vessel for narration and observation of the deplorable actions of those around him. Jamie Bell is always good and convincing as a man trying to escape his oppressive family, though never fully convincing us that he actually wants to leave. Keough and Gage are both caricatures which over-intensify the stereotypical bored, lazy rich kid archetype where affluence begets a lack of purpose or creatively.

“Aïnouz is so impressed by his own aesthetic, which is admittedly eye-catching, that he has no idea how to tie the material together.”

It’s difficult to watch the film without thinking of Emerald Fennell’s SALTBURN due to the empty and monotonous shock value, and Aïnouz revels in the trashy environment but mistakes his art house sensibility as a substitute for a coherent satire. Similarly to ONLY GOD FORGIVES, in seeking to offer a redemptive arc to a character that is barely more than a sketch, the result is a classic tale of style over substance. Aïnouz is so impressed by his own aesthetic, which is admittedly eye-catching, that he has no idea how to tie the material together.

We are told that Jack is the best of the lot, the one that doesn’t deserve to die like the others, but is he really? He is pretty insufferable, but because he resists the incestuous misery at the heart of the family and has a partner, he is somehow held in higher esteem. There are so many instances where the script, penned by Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Efthymis Fillipou, feels exactly like a Lanthimos but without any of the heft or acerbic sting of something like DOGTOOTH.

There is nothing new or interesting going on in ROSEBUSH PRUNING; the film can be chucked on the pile of burning Bottega handbags, fuelled by films that fail to take swipes at people who are the easiest possible targets.