Blackmail Boy (2005)

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A convoluted story so sophomoric in its presentation as to suggest it was written by a committee of 13-year olds not yet familiar with the film's (sparse) subject matter. This is a movie of less sophistication than the most banal soaps of daytime TV, intended for an audience that cannot hold a thought longer than 30 seconds and who have little experience of the world outside of TV. The viewer feels some sympathy for the actors, playing a script in which every utterance rings false and every motivation has not been thought through. The only message that comes through clearly in this piece is "we're all fatuous idiots without any kind of a clue". Working to help produce such a bad movie cannot have been satisfying from any of the involved actors' career perspectives. The sex scenes can have only been added in the misguided hope of spicing up a woefully lost film. These scenes have no real bearing on such a skeleton storyline and, with such dumpy- looking participants engaged in coy, passionless grapplings, they are far from titillating. The punch-ups and scuffles are equally unmoving and leave the viewer mystified, wondering why they even happened. After 2 hours of pointless dreck masquerading as emotionally-fraught DRAMA, this tale could have ended in any number of ways, any of which wouldn't have made any difference to what this movie amounted to: cinematic barf. Only thing to do is flush it. Twice.

Blackmail Boy (Oxygono) is an eccentric piece of art. to the viewer that is used to American blockbusters and mainstream movies it might not appeal, but for someone looking for more original and special film it will be an apocalypse. very true in depicting the characters of a Greek small town it manages to unfold an uncommon story that somehow manages to seem familiar. the story might not be the most common one, and in an almodovaresque way the situations depicted are obviously somewhat curious. however the characters, their actions and reactions, with their poetic realism couldn't be closer to real life. every single scene manages to make its point and to add to the strange yet captivating and full of secrets story. nobody is being judged, nobody is being praised, the persons are simply being observed as they eagerly embark on their journey towards nothing.

Well as a Greek civilian i saw in that movie the real Greek culture ... Sex , violence , blackmail is everything what a modern audience can ask from a movie!!!When i saw that black comedy i thought of Pedro Almodovar . To tell the truth , Reppas and Papathanasiou never reached Almodovar's abilities but i think they made a good start . The plot of Blackmail Boy ( a.k.a. Oxygono (GR) ) was amazing , it was quite good directed and the actors played also good in the film especially Yannis Tsimitselis and the 'Greek God' Alexandros Georgoulis. I got surprised when i saw the criticism of the film and the only thing i have to say is : Everyone who prefers European cinema MUST SEE THAT MOVIE. Thank you fellas

Thanasis Papathanasiou and Michalis Reppas serve the double capacities as writers and directors of this Greek film that places a contemporary Greek family on the stage of ancient Greek tragedies, even to the point of parallels between the characters and Greek tragedy roles! Though the story is complex and meanders a bit too much to follow with ease, it does make a powerful statement about families torn apart by death, greed, and all manner of sexual disloyalties.The family consists of mother Magda who owns important land coveted by entrepreneurs and who runs a bakery while caring for her wholly invalid husband injured in a car crash that killed her daughter; a money-conscious daughter married to Stelios, an earthy stud of a man with whom Magda is having an affair; the silent near comatose father who sits observing the tragedy like a wordless Greek chorus; and Christos, the hunky son who is bisexual and sleeping with a young girlfriend and an older woman and an older bisexual male city official Yiorgos who is married with children and is in charge of the city planning, his chief project involves the land Magda owns.The plot is convoluted but basically boils down to the development of a blackmail plan that will gain money for the land the family owns. The blackmail plan involves Christos' affair with Yiorgos in which videotapes are made of Christos' assignations with Yiorgos. The lives of all the characters are altered once the greed consumes them and there are discoveries, a death, betrayals, twists and feuds that end in a surprising manner.The cast is strong, especially Yannis Tsimitselis as Christos, Nena Menti as Magda, Akilas Karazisis as Yiorgos, and Alexis Georgoulis as Stelios, with all of the supporting roles well cast. There may be just too many factors to keep straight in this film, but the overall effect is rather grand in its unremitting examination of a family in the process of disintegrating. Well done though taxing movie. Grady Harp