Deerskin ★★★★

Director: Quentin Dupieux

Cast: Jean Dujardin, Adèle Haenel, Coralie Russier, Albert Delpy, Laurent Nicolas

Released: 16th of July

While the name Quentin Dupieux may not be familiar to everyone, you may have heard of a particular killer tire movie he released a few years ago called Rubber. The French filmmaker always seems to entice and share his sense of dark humour with his audiences. While all don’t love his brand of comedy, he stimulates many others with his films like Reality, Wrong Cops, and Mandibles. His 2019 hit Deerskin finally graces UK cinemas, and well, there is a lot to discuss.

Georges (Dujardin) is a man who has one ambition – to possess the finest jacket in the world at the expense of all others. With the relationship with his wife in tatters, Georges retreats to a remote town where he purchases the deerskin jacket of his dreams. Along with the stylish jacket he has just acquired, he also gets hold of an old video camera. This ignites a new interest as he moves from couture to auteur. Aided by aspiring editor Denise (Haenel), he sets out to create his masterwork. However, his ever-closer relationship with his deerskin jacket starts to take him down a darker path that he continues to document on his camera.

Quentin Dupieux’s Deerskin brings his wonderful sense of absurdist satire and leaves you thinking about your spending habits. Jean Dujardin gets the ball rolling as you are immersed in Depiux’s intriguing world. Georges is a quiet man with an obsession, and while he refrains from expressing himself from beginning with, he eventually implodes into the beast that was dwelling inside him. Depiux’s sense of humour may not be evident to the untrained eye, but as the story unfolds, Dujardin’s purest comedic nature lets you in on the auteur’s humour.

As Geroge’s ego grows ever more so with his tatty jacket and digital camera, Denise comes into the picture, the obscurities between reality and fantasy become detached. George’s lust for power and sense of narcissism to become the only jacket owner in the world is absolutely unhinged. Within a 77 minute runtime, Depiux develops a story only he could muster up. It does take some time to realise the full intent of Depiux’s message, but once the moment arrives, it hits you like a ton of bricks. Within the visual manner is a deadpan comedy but this sense of nihilistic greed is something we see daily in the world today. Depiux makes sure we are aware of the issues we have in the world in his films, and Deerskin proves that.

Jean Dujardin fits into the role with a subtle vibrancy while Adèle Haenel matches her counterpart blow for blow. It is always welcoming to see Dujardin within these comedic roles. He has crafted a tremendous career for himself, but his roots are in comedy. The combination of Dujardin and Haenel gives a lot of life to Dupieux’s film as he gives a massive F**k you to the world of consumerism.