Holy Motors From Director Leos Carax, Holy Motors seemed to be some sort of new amazing look into cinema, the buzz on this film has been swirling for a while. It just came out a few days ago on DVD and Blu-ray, but has had screenings around LA last month. It's a train wreck.
Just like the other recent French directed movie of Wrong, this films plot is garbage. Both directors know how to make a film and make it looks stylish and beautiful, but they can't seem to write anymore or were bored with their films as they were written.
In a strange connection of how Rubber director Quentin Dupiex seemed to get bored with Wrong and is now making Wrong Cops, director Leos already jumped that idea and included his previous character, Monsieur Merde from the film Tokyo! It's a trend I don't like and shows laziness on their parts as writers to not fully break away from their previous work.
This films story is a surreal trip of a man acting out other lives with no reason as to why he is doing it. It starts beautifully like a waking dream, but then seems to introvert and cascade into just some odd art piece scenarios for a film. Sort of like an upcoming event at LACMA where three artists must pick up title cards and laugh at them non-stop for hours. It's art, but is it entertaining? No, in this case it's forgettable. It becomes art piece after art piece with no story intact. Then ends in poor taste with talking limos.
This vehicle uses a limo and old woman driver to take Le Dormeur, the main character from different job or little life short. The limo becomes a costume van where, Le Dormeur keeps changing identity. The actor playing him does a fin job switching from role to role, but that won't help a plot that doesn't go anywhere. I found it strikingly similar to the uneasiness I felt towards Croneberg's recent film Cosmopolis. The main character also remains in a limo throughout the movie, but in Cosmopolis I can't even remember if he leaves it for more than a few minutes. I don't know if a new genre of films where limos are the main background won't be coming out. I hope not, because I hated both of these films. Oh, damn Micheal Gondry's Mood Indigo has a see-through limo, uh that's not a good sign.
The film gets more surreal as not only Le Dormeur meets former incarnations of himself and kills them, but also can be shot and killed and retain no damage. Even if you take it as a surreal dream, you seems to wake up before any conclusion can be derived from it.
It's a nightmare seeing these directors waste their talent, by not being able to accept other writers work or that they can't break in and do more commercial work and they might not want to anyway. Holy Motors is filled some big holes that can't be filled with just saying' "Oh, it's independent and weird". It just deters closer to Hell than to Heaven.
