As an Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film, “Bullhead” is an epic thriller. Filled with surprising twists, it comes together with various subplots to create one of the grimmer tragedies to appear in theaters this Oscar season.

Director Michael Roskam – in his major motion picture debut – delivers “Bullhead,” a gangster crime drama that explores the ideas of male masculinity to produce a thrilling tale of redemption and revenge.

Matthias Schoenaerts plays Jacky Vanmarsenille, a steroid-pumped cattle farmer who is brought into the underground dealing of illegal cattle hormones by a low-life beef trader. While the movie itself has little to do with cattle, it instead focuses on Jacky as he searches to find his inner self.

The film is set in rural Belgium and starts off as a typical Hollywood gangster film but slowly starts to dive into the depths of Jacky’s character, revealing an increasing amount about him as the plot unravels.

Upon first meeting Jacky, he comes off as an insensitive character that constantly needs to prove to everyone how tough he is. He will beat up nearly anyone who gets in his way but viewers quickly find that this troubled protagonist lacks self-confidence behind closed doors.

The film later reveals Jacky as the victim of a violent assault at a young age. This leaves him feeling sexually inferior, thus the cause for his steroid use. It’s why Jacky – as developed by Roskam – is the film’s strongest character.

The acting in “Bullhead” is what makes the movie one of the stronger foreign films to grace American art house theaters this year. The acting in general is excellent as Schoenaerts gives an unbelievable performance as Jacky. The actor bulked up for the role nearly two years prior to the shooting of the movie to transform himself into the bullish character he plays, according to The Los Angeles Times.

According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), Schoenaerts has won multiple awards overseas for his portrayal of the character Jacky.

The surrounding cast is also impressive as Jeroen Perceval plays Diederik – one of Jacky’s old friends. The assault tore their friendship apart, causing Diederik to desire Jacky’s forgiveness throughout the film.

Jeanne Dandoy plays Lucia, a childhood crush of Jacky’s that becomes a more prominent character as the film moves on.

Another strong point of “Bullhead” is the directing, as Roskam puts forth a strong first effort. Roskam uses Jacky’s character and the surrounding cast to put forth a gripping cast that lets the viewer feel for the characters in the movie and particularly Jacky’s character.

Roskam also uses many clever twists throughout the movie that keeps the viewer on edge waiting to see how each scene is going to play out. Overall the directing of the movie is one of the finest aspects of “Bullhead” and leaves the audience waiting for Roskam’s next work.

The one knock on “Bullhead” would be the plot, which is at times hard to follow.

The film is spoken in Dutch and French with English subtitles. This creates an issue for the English-speaking audience because the multiple characters and their backstories require full attention. This is impossible when reading subtitles.

Roskam jumps around from person to person quickly, giving the viewer large amounts of information in a short period of time. This style takes a few scenes to get used to and causes some confusion in the plot.

The overall plot is not the most coherent one you will see this year, but Roskam uses interesting characters and superb acting mixed with beautiful countryside camera shots of Belgium to overcome the plot deficiencies.

While “Bullhead” won’t turn any heads for its gangster plot, it is certainly worth seeing due to its fantastic cinematography, solid acting and its splendid directing. It is worth the time to see Schoenaerts in this film while it is also worth the time to see Roskam direct his first major motion picture. The film “Bullhead” is guaranteed to be like no other movie you will see this Oscar season, making it a must-see.

Nate Luippold can be reached at [email protected].