Review of Holy Motors (2012) by Carlos A — 25 Nov 2012

Holy bewildered! .

If I was looking for a way to round out my top 3 best films of the year, I found it! Holy Motors is a perplexing spectacle of avante gardà (C) brashness funneling its way through the art of cinema like a prostitute on the run. Going into it, I was unsure as to what I was going to experience, yet I knew that with Leo Carax on board as writer and director, I was in for quite a treat...a delicate but sour one at that. This film is best left without much explanation as there is little explanation as to what and how these intricate stories weave themselves together. All we know is that Monsieur Oscar is the main focus riding around a white limousine, going from "appointment" to "appointment," at the hands of an unseen force. Could there be an audience or is this played out for the stage of life? Little is known and little is explained but what is encountered will confuse, baffle, and even bewilder viewers. It will leave you with an unquestionable longing for old cinema and the refreshing feeling of something tasty and new. The mindless films of today have all been calculated in such a manner that it's almost robotic. With films like Holy Motors and The Master, which round out my top two films of the year (quite comfortably in place), we have a taste of what is still capable of being produced in big Hollywood. We can still expect the unexpected. We can still expect to have to think. We can still expect to be dazzled by the sheer grandness of it all. Cinephiles, celebrate! There are cine makers on the midst that will excite and perplex us!