Mandibles: NZIFF Film Review

Bearing more than a passing reference to Bill and Ted, Rubber director Quentin Dupieux's latest may try some people's patience and may also push some buttons for its portrayal of a brain-injured person.

It's the story of listless duo Manu and Jean-Gab (Gregoire Ludig and David Marsais) who get enrolled into delivering a suitcase for a contact of Manu's. Stealing a car, Manu picks up his feckless mate and sets off - but minutes into the drive, they realise something is in the car's trunk. 

It turns out that something is a 2 foot long housefly, which Jean-Gab believes they can train, make money from and who names it Dominique....

Mandibles is essentially a piecemeal road trip with a pair of idiots behind the wheel. 

It never quite capitalises on the large fly's premise or what your expectations of where the story may head, preferring instead to follow a route of a Harry and Lloyd Dumb and Dumber trip into errors and faux pas.

When Manu's accidentally recognised by a girl who erroneously believes he was a one night stand, the film turns into a potentially polarising section where Blue is the Warmest Colour's Adele Exarchopoulos turns a brain-injured skier into a dangerously one-note character and the script does little to redeem her. There are some who will claim it's an element of Farrelly brothers insanity, and others who will wince at it.

In amongst it all, though, Mandibles is a curio of a film that's as gentle as it is enjoyable - a particularly knowing final frame may hint at Dupieux's intentions, and in truth, Mandibles may lack some of the more vicious edges of the likes of Rubber and Deerskin, but this is a mellow outing of weirdness that doesn't quite go as out there as you'd expect.