Review of Holy Motors (2012) by Randy M — 07 Nov 2012

After a short segment in Tokyo! Leos Carax presents another collaboration with Daniel Levant. In Holy Motors the protagonist wanders around town in his shiny, rich, white limo (the first thing that comes to mind is Cosmopolis) in order to go around a series of strange meetings.

Every time he takes the form of a different persona, fulfilling his role as an assassin, hobo, monster-man, father, etc. Without a care in the world, he strolls around the streets abusing other people, and - what's rather funny - even when he's near death he miraculously revives inside the fortified limousine.

While many of the appalling adventures are perfectly watchable in the sense of fantastic visual style and moody cinematography, they often falter in the narrative sense. Leos Carax wanted to create an artistic movie so badly, that he actually forgot about the adequacy of the final message of the story.

It's a subtle triumph of form over substance, even though Holy Motors delivers a fine amount of chills and thrills and ponders degradation of humane values and the overpowering loneliness and sense of isolation in the contemporary world.