Keep an Eye Out

Directed by Quentin Dupieux, Keep an Eye Out follows a cop (Benoît Poelvoorde’s Buron) as he attempts to determine whether or not Grégoire Ludig’s Fugain actually committed the murder that he witnessed. It’s a familiar premise that’s employed as a springboard for a typically oddball and off-the-wall endeavor by Dupieux, as the filmmaker, working from his own screenplay, delivers an often inexplicably weird comedy that transpires almost entirely within the confines of Buron’s police-station office – with the movie benefiting quite substantially from its perfectly-pitched deadpan performances and a smattering of laugh-out-loud funny bits and gags. (The best and most memorable example of this is the ridiculous set-piece that kicks off the proceedings, undoubtedly.) And although the story rarely goes where one might’ve anticipated – the decidedly insane climactic stretch is emblematic of Dupieux’s unabashedly bizarre modus operandi, to be sure – Keep an Eye Out‘s overall effectiveness is hampered by a hit-and-miss midsection that prevents the movie from becoming the consistently captivating endeavor Dupieux has obviously intended. The end result is a decent and thoroughly novel piece of work that falls right in line with Dupieux’s previous efforts, with the picture, for the most part, ultimately straining to justify its already-brief running time of 73 minutes.

**1/2 out of ****