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Cinema Junkie by Beth Accomando

A History of Violence

A History of Violence
Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence.

David Cronenberg is a filmmaker who's built his reputation on movies that confound viewer expectations. Movies such as Naked Lunch, The Fly and Crash subvert the line between reality and fantasy. His previous film, Spider , was a small budget effort that took viewers inside an unhinged mind. Cronenberg's latest film opens this weekend in LA, New York and select cities. It's called A History of Violence. Once again, Cronenberg is likely to set viewers on edge.

David Cronenberg says hes not interested in comfortable cinema.

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DAVID CRONENBERG: "Comfort is not a great place to launch creativity from And so I feel the same way about my audience, for an interesting experience, for a self-reflective experience comfort is not the way to go."

But Cronenberg begins A History of Violence in a comfortable place -- the fictional Millbrook, Indiana, a very normal, very nice Midwestern town.

DAVID CRONENBERG: "This is a possible ideal that I am showing you now and lets see what happens to it when something disrupts it."

The disruption comes in the form of two outsiders who arrive late one night at Tom Stall's family diner.