Lot in Sodom: A weird, hypnotic trip back to 1933

Is it for you?

If you want a straightforward story, look elsewhere. Seriously. This is for the folks who like their cinema weird, abstract, and dripping with 1930s avant-garde energy. If you hate old silent films or get bored by movies that prioritize vibes over plot, skip it. But if you have fifteen minutes and want to see how movies used to experiment with light and shadow, it's a trip.

Lot in Sodom isn't really a movie you watch so much as a movie you just kind of… let happen to you. It feels like someone took a bunch of statues and decided to make them dance in the dark. The bodies are everywhere. Seriously, there is a lot of skin for 1933. It’s not necessarily sexy, but it is deeply, deeply strange.

The soundtrack by Alec Wilder is probably the most unsettling part. It’s jarring. It feels like the music is fighting the images half the time, which honestly makes the whole thing work better. It’s not some polished orchestral score; it’s prickly and weird.

Oddly specific notes:

• The way they light the wine spilling? It’s oddly hypnotic.
• Some of the actors look like they are trying to do a very serious play while everyone else is just having a weird party.
• The finale is basically a firework show of editing. It’s frantic.

It’s funny how, in a weird way, the chaos here reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in Mickey's Follies, even though they are obviously doing completely different things. One is a cartoon mouse, and the other is a biblical fever dream, but the urge to just go wild with the medium is there.

I found myself staring at the shadows more than the faces. The contrast is so sharp that the people almost look like paper cutouts at times. It makes the city feel like a place that couldn't possibly exist, which is probably the point. It’s not trying to be a history lesson. It’s trying to be a nightmare.

The movie doesn't bother with stuffy dialogue cards, which is a relief. It just leans into the visual chaos. It ends pretty abruptly, like someone just pulled the plug on the projector, and honestly? That’s probably how it should have ended. It leaves you feeling like you just woke up from a nap you didn't mean to take. 🍷🔥