Review of Holy Motors (2012) by Joey S — 05 Mar 2013

The most original piece of filmmaking I have ever seen, Holy Motors is a surreal expedition through movies that is as strange as it is enthralling. To summarize the plot would entirely defeat the purpose of the movie, especially since it's far from a typical narrative.

Simply put though, it's made up of nine or ten vignettes connected by the protagonist, Monsieur Oscar, an actor of sorts who plays all of the protagonists of the vignettes. Each vignette is inspired by a different movie genre; they range from romance to crime thriller to monster movie, and everything in between.

Not all of the vignettes are equally interesting, namely one that involves Oscar playing a motion capture actor, but many of them are so fun and exciting that you'll rarely be bored. There is exactly one scene that is grounded in reality, involving Oscar driving his daughter home from a party, but everything else is fantastical.

The strangeness factor hits an all-time high at the very end, where it seems to just be weird for the sake of weird, but it doesn't make much of a difference given that the rest of the movie doesn't exactly strive to be realistic.

Holy Motors is not for everyone; many people will just find it too unusual. However, if you stick with it and don't worry about what it all means, it's a spectacularly entertaining and completely unique movie.