Review of Holy Motors (2012) by Ben M — 10 Nov 2014

A brilliant celebration of film, art, and acting, as well as a dark meditation on suicide, loss, and loneliness. "Holy Motors" is an intensely personal film that is equal parts thrilling, devastating, joyous, and hilarious-- sometimes all at once.

It's bafflingly obtuse at times, constantly undercutting any sense of genuine connection by zigging and zagging away from "real" moments (most pointedly when we find that the scene with Oscar's "daughter" is merely another layer of artifice). I was ready to call the film a heady, clever art film that left me cold emotionally (because much of it did), but boy if Carax didn't just go ahead and pull the rug out from under me anyway when Oscar walks into the house at the end to greet his "family." It suddenly struck me how profoundly, achingly sad I felt for the character in this moment, then realizing that the act of avoiding those "real" moments, as it were, ultimately became the very structure with which the emotional connection I was yearning for became possible.

That's just one level on which the film works, but the whole thing is dense and mysterious and whimsical and haunting in all of the best ways that great cinema can be.