Years ago I went all the way to a small cinema at a fair distance from home just to see this movie and while I thought it was depressing I also thought it was fascinating. Today I rented it on a streaming service and enjoyed it even more than back then. If you can handle stuff such as nudity, explicit sex, vomit, urination, eating questionable food, and excessive drinking this movie shouldn't be too offensive or off putting. None of the those things is over the top but the depiction is brutally honest in its bleak realism. If you can't handle that, you might want to stay away from this movie. While depressing things such as one man drinking himself to death, another relapsing into alcoholism and another causing a traffic accident while drunk do happen, there are also positive things in the story. These are things such as one of the men's son being able to live a better life as an adult than his father or other family members despite the pretty awful conditions during his youth. One of the last scenes is of him teaching his young son to ride a bicycle without training wheels. It's one of those litlle things indicating his future is brighter than before. Apparently this movie is based on a book and at the very least has actual elements from the author's youth. I have never read it but it might be worth checking out. As a dutchman I had little trouble understanding the Flemish (there's a debate about whether it's an actual language or a dialect of dutch), but if you aren't dutch or have trouble with heavy regional accents you definitely will want to watch this with subtitles. Originally I gave this a 7 out 10, but I think 9 out 10 is fairer.
PS: Some of the things that happen are so outrageous they're bound to get a laugh despite the harsh subject matter.
PS: Some of the things that happen are so outrageous they're bound to get a laugh despite the harsh subject matter.