ROSEBUSH PRUNING

(director: Karim Aïnouz; screenwriter: Efthimis Filippou, based on the film ‘Fists in the Pocket’ by Marco Bellocchio; cinematographer: Hélène Louvart; editors: Heike Parplies, David Jancso, Ilka Janka Nagy; music: Matthew Herbert; cast: Callum Turner (Ed), Jamie Bell (Jack), Riley Keough (Anna), Lukas Gage (Robert), Elle Fanning (Martha), Tracy Letts (blind father), Pamela Anderson (mother), Elena Anaya (Emma); Runtime: 95; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Michael Weber, Viola Fügen, Simone Gattoni, Annamaria Morelli, Andreas Wentz, Vladimir Zemtsov; A Mubi release/The Match Factory; 2026-Italy/Germany/Spain/UK/USA)

“Inane satire.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
 
The Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz (“The Central Airport”/”Firebrand”) directs this inane satire, an ‘eat the rich’ film. It’s written by Efthimis Filippou, a Greek, who based it on the 1965 satire ‘Fists in the Pocket’ by Marco Bellocchio.

In a luxury villa, in the northeast of Spain, four spoiled adults came here from New York several years ago-the sex-crazed Anna (Riley Keough); the oldest of the children, Jack (Jamie Bell); the youngest, Robert (Lukas Gage), and Ed (Callum Turner). They are a wealthy, toxic family who live with their lecherous blind father (Tracey Letts). Their mom (Pamela Anderson) was killed by a pack of wolves two years ago.
 
Ed, the middle child, has the following proverb, “People are roses, families are rosebushes who need pruning.”

The entitled group is miffed when Jack starts dating Martha (Elle Fanning) and thinks of moving in with her. This would mean a valued member of the family would be gone. When meeting the family, they come onto Martha with degrading insults.

The social commentary is filled with banal anti-capitalist harangues that soon become as wearisome as the film.

It played at the Berlin Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 7/26/2026  GRADE: C+
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