Image via miff.com.au

The perfect film to see at a midnight screening, Quentin Dupieux’s Deerskin is a wry and disturbing romp that never takes itself seriously.

George’s (Jean Dujardin)  marriage is over and, having blown a large amount of cash on a vintage, 100% deerskin jacket, he holes up in an isolated hotel. He is a man looking to either reinvent himself or distance himself from the failings of his past. A textbook midlife crisis. The jacket becomes the focus of his new sense of self and he is relentlessly impressed with how he looks in it. Killer style.

So intense is his self obsession that it feels quite normal when he begins to have in-depth conversations with the jacket. What they both really want is for no one else in the world to wear jackets. When he meets barmaid Denise (Adèle Haenel who was so good in BPM), he convinces her to work with him on the film he (and his jacket) are shooting on a digital camcorder.

To say any more would spoil the delight of watching the silly, engaging plot unfold. Dujardin is excellent, personifying every man who refuses to acknowledge his mistakes or act with empathy. The jacket could be ego or dominance or just a toxic masculinity that gives you power but not love. The deerskin is that which was wild and free but has been dominated and subsumed. The ending is a cracker.

Have you seen this film? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.