By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: André Dussollier | Dany Boon | Jean-Pierre Marielle | Nicolas Marié | Yolande Moreau
Original language title: Micmacs à tire-larigot
Country: france
Year: 2010
Running time: 105
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149361/
Thom says: “This film is absolute perfection, defining the art of film, frame-by-frame, scene-by-scene, with so many of the delightful excesses that Jeunet is known for. And don’t count me as a Jeunet Pollyanna, by any means. While I’m a huge fan of DELICATESSEN & THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN & even an admirer of his blockbuster attempt in ALIEN 4, I wasn’t the biggest fan in the world of his worshipped AMELIE, & A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT annoyed me. So I went into this with some trepidation. Not to worry, this is far and away his best ever. A curious book seller gets accidentally hit in the head with a stray bullet and comes out barely alive, with the bullet lodged in his brain. He joins up with a strange group of underground circus performer types who each have an extraordinary ability and through a long, involved, impossibly entertaining route they extract revenge on the arm-makers that are responsible for his accident. Totally charming with wonderful, likable characters this is whimsy at its very best. And, it even has a powerful message to boot. The actors are all perfectly cast and each scene has tremendous, fresh delights. Jeunet’s best quality, loving the art of the coincidence, is honed to a fine-tooth-comb. Enjoy! 5 cats ”
Jason says: “Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s newest film took a few days to grow on me, but that’s the nature of Jeunet: The years between new films and intricate detail are often associated with weighty, ‘important’ films, but Jeunet has a light touch at his best; his biggest mis-steps have come when trying to tell bigger stories. Here, he’s mostly just having fun, and while that doesn’t seem like much, it makes Micmacs a joy to watch.
“Fun movies don’t usually start with someone getting shot in the head, but that’s what happens to Bazil (Dany Boon), a video store clerk who chooses the wrong moment to step outside. The doctors decide that the immediate risk of removing the bullet outweighs the fact that it could kill him at any time, so he’s let go, but once he comes out of his coma, his job and apartment are gone. A group of misfits living in a nearby garbage dump take him in, though, and soon go along with his scheme to strike back at the munitions manufacturers who made both the bullet in his head and the land mine that killed his father.
“Yes, the lovable misfits really do live in a garbage dump, albeit an unusually tidy one; Jeunet and co-writer Guillaume Laurant are not exactly hiding a metaphor there. They don’t feel the need to shout it at the audience, though there are moments when the whimsy is pushed back. The extended flashback to Bazil’s father, for instance, has a veneer of childish sentimentality to it, but is serious enough to give Bazil a layer of melancholy even though you could otherwise argue that getting shot in the head was a good thing for him (it led him to wonderful friends). And while there is a serious idea or two underneath the whimsy – merchants of death too concerned with one-upsmanship to care about the effects of their business – Jeunet never loses sight of his primary goal being to entertain an audience.
“And he does that nicely. There’s not a character in the film who doesn’t make the audience laugh at some point, including the villains (in fact, the banter between Nicolas Marié’s François Marconi and the his son is one of the movie’s funnier recurring bits). None of the group Bazil hooks up with is a downer, and his ever more elaborate plans are delightfully absurd in concept. They play out with grace, outlandish even within the exaggerated world Jeunet has created, precisely controlled bits of comedic chaos.
“MICMACS has a fine comic ensemble, but Dany Boon is at the center of it. He’s got a gift for physical comedy, though more as a mime than a purveyor of slapstick and pratfalls, as well as the ability to be the guy who can react to strangeness with either a double-take or shrug, as the situation demands. He’s a sad clown, but never one who drags the film down. Still, it’s the kind of performance that can’t stand on its own – it needs the smug villainy of Andé Dussollier and Nicolas Marié as the weapons execs, Julie Ferrier as the smitten contortionist, Dominique Pinon as the cranky human cannonball, and every other minor actor who brings something funny to his or her part, no matter how small.
“Which is right and just, because that’s the nature of a Jeunet film – there is no piece too small to be done well. And because he and his collaborators invest so much in everything on screen for every minute of the film, even a relatively small story like Micmacs becomes a triumph. 5 cats
“Seen 28 April 2010 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre #1 (Independent Film Festival of Boston)”