Holy Motors

Dir. Leos Carax. 2012, 116 mins. Digital projection. With Denis Lavant, Edith Scob, Eva Mendes, Kylie Minogue. In French with English subtitles. Carax’s fantastically bizarre drama follows its protagonist, Mr. Oscar, through a single workday in Paris. As he is ferried around by chauffeur from one “appointment” to another, he undergoes a series of radical transformations, his white stretch limousine becoming a dressing room where new costumes and makeup are applied. A meditation on the manufacture of identity in an age of modern media, each costume triggers a different scenario, from the abject, to the sentimental, to the horrific.