Review of Holy Motors (2012) by Jamie J — 21 Mar 2013

"Holy Motors" is strange, crazy, and confusing, but I loved it. I haven't seen a film so unique and unafraid of its audience since "Fallen Angels" by Wong-Kar Wai, yet "Holy Motors" outdoes the former constantly. Leos Carax is one of the most important directors of our generation, using shocking images and innovative story-lines that most filmmakers wouldn't even dare to come close to. He's constantly daring, and every film he makes it better than the last. "Holy Motors" is fantastic.

While it may be impossible to completely explain the plot, what we do know is that a mysterious man named Mr. Oscar (Denis Lavant) travels around Paris in a white limousine driven by cool blonde Céline (Edith Scob), all the while changing appearances and personalities constantly. He can do anything, from playing an assassin to an old man, yet we don't know why. And that's why the film works.

Denis Lavant is a hugely fascinating actor, because he's willing to do anything for a role. He works with Carax more than any other actor, and he's the perfect man for the job. A film like this asks for an actor that's able to embody different characters, and Lavant does it with enviable ease. He transforms into these personas just as brilliantly as Mr. Oscar, and it's quite a feat.

Lavant's many terrific performances are the perfect flatterer to the images, which range from beautiful, to noiry, to shocking. Lights throughout the city glow with robotic like heat, while a graveyard has the ability to look like chaos when Lavant replays his role as "Mérde" from 2008's "Tokyo!" The women themselves burn images into our minds as well, with Eva Mendes is the epitome of beauty and fatality without speaking a word, while Kylie Minogue appears as a Jean Seberg look alike, sings a sad song, and then kills herself. Do any of these images, characters, or stories add up? Never. But individually they're so different from anything we've ever seen that it's almost impossible not to appreciate what Carax is doing.

"Holy Motors" is a film that's needed in a time where there's more "movies" than "films". This is one of the most artistically daring films of the decade, and soon enough, all time.