Holy what in the hell!

HOLY MOTORS (2012)

I enjoy a wee bit of strange, yup, Boony likes his film steak with a side oh mashed strange. However, the weird, the strange, has to make sense. Has to at least give you hope that upon the 3rd of 4th or 27th viewing you might just you know... Get it...

Holy Motors missed that boat folks. It could have been so very freaking awesome, and it comes... I mean... It's right there... and then, BAM! Fall on face non-sensical.

The plot as I can somewhat gather is that a man  Mr. Oscar, played Denis Lavant, spends a night (as he does every night) traveling and playing many different roles, literally. He has driver from appointment to appointment by way of a white limo. Inside between stops he radically changes his appearance, and character, to match that of the person he will be playing. These include, a dying uncle, a strange one eyed freak, a thug, a father, um... a man married to a monkey...
Ya.
I need to say Denis Lavant deserves an Oscar nod. The film may be nonsense, but his efforts as an actor in this film are nothing short of extraordinary. I really enjoyed the first half of this film. I may not have really had any idea of what the heck was happening but it was fun, and cool. One scene has him playing the role of a motion capture guy, it is rather spell binding. Then, there is a particular scene "Interval" that features a full band accordion solo... I know right... how often does anyone get to type that. Great stuff, and the kind of moments that just made you root for the movie to get to a point.

Greatest Musical interlude ever - Polka Bitches!

Listen, I know Leos Carax (the director) is kind of a critical darling genius type. But, in fairness the majority of his films have had a cohesive structure. This film just seems like a gathering of awesome set pieces and acting on a grand scale, with no purpose. I mean really... You could argue the god angle. You could argue the points made for the roles we play, players on the grandest stage - blah blah, but really; what is this movies purpose?

It is a shame to waste the ideas, and the acting, of this caliber on chaos. I mean give me a little at least. Don't tempt me with a revelation only to cut to a garage of limos debating their need in the new world. Yup you read that right... a stretch limo chat... without any involvement from Pixar, and about as needed as a diamond stud through my left nip.

I get it. The man is an artist. The film is a tribute to art... but that's just not enough. If you wanna sip wine, and debate this film over cheese lol... go ahead. You want a well acted, insane piece of filmaking that you can put together and figure out on or before the 27th viewing - Mulholland Dr by David Lynch 2001. That is a messed up head trip that is worth the mental liquefying.

Movie scale 2.5 out of 5 stars - Only, and I repeat - ONLY for the performance of Denis Lavant.
Weird movie scale 2.5 out of 5 stars - if you want to explore the limits of your hallucinatory mind... this may be for you... :P

Serious how did this guy not get an Oscar nod? One of the best, and most demanding performances of the year... though I guess the plot being utter insanity didn't help...

- Boonsweet.