Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People - TIFF [2026]
Film
I don't think it's too often that a cult-following Japanese filmmaker tries their hand at a film depicting a Black American's battle with PTSD stemming from the Vietnam War. It's especially interesting when the aforementioned director garnered their cult following with a cyberpunk/body-horror fusion film in 1989. But that's exactly the type of big swing that Shinya Tsukamoto takes with Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? where he writes, directs, shoots, and edits the film to varying results. Tsukamoto's hyper-kinetic and ultra-graphic stylings work well to showcase the vicious nature of PTSD, but the writing and character work struggle terribly, making for an imbalanced and perplexing full picture.
Allen Nelson, played by Mark Merphy in his youth and Rodney Hicks in his middle-aged years, like many young black men growing up in the 50s and 60s, joins the military to escape poverty only to be fed into the cogs of the war machine in Vietnam. Tsukamoto's story, an adaptation of Nelson's book about his life and time in Vietnam, jumps quite aggressively between different parts of Nelson's life. His time living on the streets as a young veteran struggling with PTSD is underscored with furiously chaotic camera work, flashing lights, and incomprehensible movements as Nelson fights his toughest battles against PTSD. In these struggles, Tsukamoto's style shines as a stylistic choice, being difficult to watch and understand by design as we see Nelson's internal struggles manifest in the form of the camera's shake. Tsukamoto's attention to gratuitous violence in Nelson's Vietnam experience paints an aggressively shocking portrait in blood, sweat, tears, and dirt, once again playing into the stylistic prowess of the auteur. However, the sheer weight of the violence, of course by design, is almost too difficult to watch. However, the filmmaking technicality of these Vietnam sets is terrific and showcases an incredibly important, disgusting underbelly to a part of American history that is often glorified or misrepresented in some way.
Although the technical and stylistic choices of Tsukamoto, no matter how difficult they can be to visually digest, are strong, the story and character choices are outlandishly flat. Geoffrey Rush playing a begrudging therapist for Nelson is somehow shockingly static and uninspiring. You won't find any chemistry akin to Rush's Oscar-nominated role opposite Colin Firth in The King's Speech, and quite frankly the same goes for every supporting character in Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?. Outside of a solid performance from Merphy and Hicks as the titular Nelson, the surrounding characters are propped up with bland performances and horrid dialogue, driving the film's time-jumping story into vapid territory. Sadly, making Mr. Nelson's incredible story and Tsukamoto's exploration of military exploitation of young black men (Nelson's platoon is almost entirely comprised of minority soldiers) a miss.
Film
Tsukamoto's film is simply put, a lot. It's ultra-graphic, the camera work is chaotic, the editing I could even describe as extremely choppy, and overall the movie is just flat out hard to watch. This is all by design to elevate the extreme nature of Nelson's Vietnam experience and the pain of PTSD, so as an audience member you might want something that is the easiest possible companion. The Steam Whistle Pilsner is just that. It's easy to drink, refreshing, and possesses just enough malty flavor and a pinch of spice to be interesting in each sip. Other brew styles would be a sensory overload with Tsukamoto's film, but a Pilsner like this is a classic taste and style that is a comforting old friend to rely on.
