"A Hole in My Heart" is a brave, shocking cinematic experience intimately filmed in a cramped Swedish apartment and following a total of four characters through acts of physical degradation, sensual perversity and emotional isolation. Bonded commonalities emerge among them, procuring each a sense of comfort for the present and something less than fear for the future.

A fearless filmmaking exercise from start to finish, "A Hole in My Heart" is exceedingly kinetic yet always in control of its own shock value. An extreme but somehow more authentic version of the worldwide craze for "reality TV," the images young Swedish auteur Lukas Moodysson puts on screen are never easy to look at but even more difficult to turn away from.