Holy Motors - 2012 - 4½ Stars, 2 Stars

Actors:  Denis Lavant, Edith Scob
Director:  Leos Carax

I was going to think of films and directors to try to describe Holy Motors by way of analogy, but that is decidedly unfair - this is a singular film.  At no point is it predictable or does it allow you to get into a rhythm with it.  I've given it two ratings because I feel like this aspect of the film succeeds wildly while the other parts of the film are not so well-developed.  Its singularity gets in the way of everything it attempts to do.

Warning:  I won't spoil any plot elements, but I will be discussing themes which are kinda spoilers for this one

What I'm having trouble grappling with is the idea that Holy Motors is more than a meta-film.  It's both an imagination of what could be - how the world theoretically could be, what's going on behind our collective backs - and seemingly also a meditation on the role of the stage/film actor in society.  Since the latter film has been done a thousand times and is not particularly interesting or emotionally affecting, I'm trying really hard to get past that.  We don't really get a sense of what our lead character truly is (nor does his existence present very much that's equal to our own), so how can we empathize with his life?  Indeed, I think that's the trouble with this film and why it doesn't fully work for me - the layers of artifice make it very difficult for any of the emotional sequences in the film to resonate, as they would in a more conventional film.  Or is the emotional content our (and the characters') awareness of the artifice itself?

I'm reminded very much of films like 8½ and Synecdoche, New York, and I didn't love either one of those.  Then again I'm also reminded of David Lynch and I do like him.  I don't know - I wish this had been just a little different, I think I might've loved it.  It is one film that I can legitimately call 'post-modern' - every element in this film is unstable and prone to alteration.