Reality

2014 absurdist comedy

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A director pitches a movie to a film producer and is given a deadline to find the perfect groan of pain. Meanwhile, a little girl discovers a VHS tape in a boar. People dream.

I'm of the opinion that the release of a Quentin Dupieux movie should be celebrated like a holiday, yet even I'm not sure what I just watched. Sure the face of Eric Wareheim, the non-sequiturs, and the absurd tone are all familiar enough, but I'm pretty sure this is a puzzle with pieces that don't even fit together. If you like clean resolutions in your movies, you might be frustrated by this. And if you're Christopher Nolen, you might think Dupieux is poking fun at your little Leonardo Dicaprio dream movie. There's part of me that still thinks Dupieux is a complete hack and that his movies are absurdist for the sake of absurdism, but something like Reality still feels so original and is so funny that it doesn't really matter.

This might be the type of movie that would grow on me even more if I watched it again.