Aug 17

Aug 17 Dressed to kill: The Absurdity of “Deerskin” is intoxicating

This might be the strangest movie released in 2020. Amidst an absolute shitstorm of a year by any calculation, comes a little nugget of insanity, where one can sit back, put their feet up and utter WTF’s at every turn. Though utterly bonkers on many levels, Quentin Dupieux’s (musician, DJ, Director, renaissance man) Deerskin is technically beguiling, with strong performances and deft direction that steers this mad ship into somewhat euphoric, compelling territory.

Georges (Jean Dujardin), a man whom we know nothing of, drives down a highway with a vacant gaze. He stops off at a service station where he removes his jacket of fine suede, and stuffs it down a public toilet, causing an inevitable blockage of which he seems surprised. So begins Georges’ journey down the path of lunacy as whilst he flushes his jacket down the toilet so too does he flush his own sanity. Georges is emancipated: from work, responsibility, marriage, what-have-you. He’s left his old life of pressure and rules, for something unhinged. You could say it’s a familiar tale of the mid-life crisis gone wrong, but you would be incorrect. For this is not a mid-life crisis any normal joe would experience. It’s weirder than that. Much weirder.

On his little aimless sojourn, Georges purchases a deerskin jacket, of extreme value (to him), that he believes possesses “killer-style”. At the same time, he acquires a digital camcorder, just to sweeten the deal. With his new-found confidence and exciting new toy, Georges posts up at a small town in the French Alps, in a quaint hotel. He spends his days staring into the mirror, admiring his jacket and drowning in his own sense of “Killer-style”. The blatant allusions to Travis Bickle and Taxi Driver are no accident: the man has lost it, his mind now fused interminably with the power of the deerskin. A chance encounter with local barmaid, Denise (a formidable Adele Haneal) inspires a new identity of budding ‘film-maker’. With her aspirations as a film editor, it’s a match made in heaven. A new Georges is born.

To say any more would be to spoil the juices of this strange fruit. Dujardin is excellent as Georges. His off-beat yet intense approach to Georges is measured and nuanced. Haneal as Denise is equally impressive as a reluctant sidekick who nevertheless becomes a devilish co-conspirator, just as game to fall down the rabbit hole as her other half. Aside from performances the direction is stylish and sparse with each scene imbued with a static, beige veneer, as if every frame has itself fused into the aforementioned deerskin. Paired with Janko Nilovic’s unsettling score, the film is cohesive in a way that becomes mesmerising.

Deerskin is altogether odd and is truly like nothing else released this year. It’s bursting with menace and style that yield laughs and gasps in equal measure. Quentin Dupieux has crafted a unique blend of horror and comedy with his new work, that seems to perfectly straddle the sweet spot between the two. It’s not profound, but its absurdity is intoxicating.