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France · 2019
1h 17m
Director Quentin Dupieux
Starring Jean Dujardin, Adèle Haenel, Albert Delpy, Coralie Russier
Genre Comedy, Horror
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Georges dreams of owning a designer deerskin jacket, a dream that quickly becomes reality once he blows his life savings and leaves his suburban life behind. But with the jacket comes a filmmaking opportunity — and a few hallucinations, and also some violent inclinations. This absurdist comedy-horror explores how far a fetish can go.
A tedious mix of Reno 9-1-1 awkward humor and the queasy provocation in Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job!, it felt like Dupieux was trying too hard, and Deerskin feels like the injection of the leather obsession just never quite meshes with the rest of the story.
Deerskin is more of a twisted lark than anything else, but it hits on something meaningful—a first for a director who’s shown almost no prior interest in reality, even within a film called Reality.
At barely over an hour, Deerskin packs quite a punch, and is bound to get under your skin.
The modest running time ... means that it does feel a little slight and underdeveloped in places. However, there are enough sparks of originality and comic invention throughout to capture those in search of something winningly offbeat and unexpected.
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
Slight but quite amusing ... But despite a few good gags and committed performances, the nagging suspicion that this eccentric concept would’ve worked better as a medium-length work or even a short remains.
The Playlist by Bradley Warren
A hilarious and twisted festival amuse-bouche with tremendous cult appeal.
In Deerskin, Quentin Dupieux mines the absurdism that is his signature with newfound forcefulness.
It’s hard to shake the feeling that Dupieux’s outré premise would have worked better as a short, as the unusual narrative struggles to make the scenario palatable even at the bare minimum for a feature-length treatment.
Los Angeles Times by Justin Chang
Although ostensibly set in the present day, this odd, frightening and entrancing little movie seems stuck in a moment out of time.
A loopy entertaining WTF lark. ... The fact that it holds you, for 77 minutes, is a testament to the debauched rigor of Dupieux’s filmmaking.
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