Holy Motors

A wonderfully bizarre French arthouse curveball from writer / director Leos Carax, in which the enigmatic Monsieur Oscar (played by Denis Lavant) is chauffeured around Paris in a white limo by his driver Celine (Edith Scob), as he attends "appointments" in various disguises over the course of one day. Using his dressing room in the back of the limo, he transforms himself as required into different characters, first an old lady begging in the street, then a motion capture actor performing an erotic dance with a female counterpart, then a one-eyed ginger-haired tramp gatecrashing a fashion shoot, and so on. The beauty of it is that we never quite know what the hell is going on, or what's coming next!

Featuring an amazing central performance by Denis Lavant, Holy Motors is a surreal, hypnotic two-hour head scratching experience, all the way to the end with the hilariously bonkers final scene involving the limousines and a supernatural twist. It's magical and awe-inspiring, baffling and disturbing, and guaranteed to leave you with more questions than answers in the same way recent films like Kill List and The Tree of Life may have done (i.e. "WTF just happened?").

Eva Mendes gets one of the coolest segments as the speechless supermodel, kidnapped by a grotesque figure and dragged back to his filthy cave. Kylie Minogue's brief cameo / musical interlude on the other hand is probably the lowest point in the film, but at least she makes a swift exit in the most satisfying manner.

Undoubtedly there will be impatient multiplex regulars who will sneer, call it pretentious crap and walk out. It's their loss. Holy Motors may be an audacious and infuriatingly cryptic cinematic puzzle, but it's a welcome change of pace. To try and make too much sense of it is perhaps missing the point. Just sit back and enjoy the ride, one like this doesn't come around too often!

UK release date: 28th September 2012