Being There

Starts out as yet another squirm inducing European extreme movie: graphically violent, lurid, maybe even a bit too arch and on the nose, but as it unfolds — bifurcates really — it starts to reveal that it's up to something else entirely, something more complicated and maybe more personal about identity, about family, about masculinity, and well, maybe about faith (insert image of David Lynch refusing to elaborate on why he said Eraserhead is his most spiritual film).

Look, I'm neither qualified nor inclined to guess at what everything means to the filmmaker or to any other viewers. I just know that in the first reel I nearly had a heart attack as a woman pulled too hard on another woman's nipple piercing with her teeth, and when the last line was spoken I had to choke back a sob. Any movie that can walk that tightrope and not tilt or plummet but constantly surprise and ring true (on a gut level even when not a logical one) is a magic trick to me. I'd draw comparisons to Cronenberg or Denis, but it would be diminutive. Ducournau is her own filmmaker. Looking forward to whatever she does next!