Deerskin

As bizarre and oddball as one might’ve anticipated, Deerskin follows Jean Dujardin’s Georges as he spends an inordinate amount of money on a vintage deerskin jacket and subsequently develops an obsession that does, eventually, result in murder and mayhem. It’s clear almost immediately that Deerskin‘s greatest asset is Dujardin himself, as the actor does an often spellbinding job of transforming his off-the-wall character into a consistently engaging and affable protagonist. There’s little doubt, as well, that Deerskin benefits substantially from an often hilarious screenplay, as filmmaker Quentin Dupieux’s script boasts a number of laugh-out-loud funny encounters and set pieces (eg Georges asks a couple of baffled strangers if they’re talking about his jacket) – with the compulsively watchable atmosphere heightened by the admittedly unexpected twists that begin cropping up (ie the narrative takes and exceedingly and impressively dark turn). And although Dupieux can’t quite sustain what’s already a super short running time, Deerskin nevertheless comes off as an appealingly inexplicable piece of work that stands out among its somewhat surreal brethren.

*** out of ****

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