Matt Olsen on The Smartest Kind of Dumb: Mandibles (2020, dir by Quentin Dupieux, French-Belgian)
Since his 2010 breakout film Rubber – previously covered in this blog under the rubric of Absurdities in the 21st Century – Quentin Dupieux has cemented himself as one of the most idiosyncratic and consistent filmmakers working today. An auteur in the truest sense (he is French, after all), a Dupieux film is almost instantly recognizable. They are unhurried, quiet, and silly, which is a trio one doesn’t encounter in many comedies of this or any other era. One can find some similar moments in certain films of Jerry Lewis or Steve Martin though these are almost always followed by fevered expressions of mania soon thereafter. Dupieux maintains a much steadier mid-tempo rhythm throughout his stories. Instead of punchlines or pratfalls, Dupieux gives you a perplexing wonder.
Apparently released in 2020, Mandibles was one of numerous films that came out over the last two years and went largely unnoticed, for the obvious reason. So, it was a wonderfully staggering surprise to see a new and unheard of Dupieux movie featured on the streaming channel’s front page. Sure, I wish it had been given a wide theatrical run but Mandibles is almost certainly much too odd and French to have ever been a massive hit had it been released under traditional circumstances so, perhaps, there isn’t a huge loss in terms of revenue or cultural impact for the film. Then, the accidental delight of simply coming across the movie, like some lunatic savant’s jam-stained journal abandoned on a bus bench, only adds to the sheer fun of the film and nicely mirrors its narrative.
In the tradition of countless other comedies across all varieties of the performing arts – novellas, three-act plays, epic poems, dirty jokes, etc. – Mandibles begins with two dumb guys. It’s one of those “non-threatening morons tasked with a simple job go astray” stories. Amiable vagrant, Manu, is enlisted to transport a briefcase with the promise of a nice payout upon completion. To make the delivery, Manu steals a car and picks up his equally aimless friend, Jean-Gab. Along the way, they hear something bumping around in the trunk of their hijacked vehicle. When they pull over to investigate, they discover their uninvited passenger: a housefly the size of a cocker spaniel. This is the magic of Quentin Dupieux: two simpletons and a very large fly = movie.
Despite its premise, the film never descends into the kind of over-the-top wackiness one might expect. It’s definitely ridiculous but the pacing and tone are naturalistic and even-keeled to a degree that feels intrinsic to its creator’s cock-eyed confidence. While peerless in many regards, Mandibles shares more than a few primary components of a classic road movie. Above everything, it rests on the friendship and loyalty shared between Manu and Jean-Gab. Notwithstanding some of the heinous acts of criminality and violence that follow, the film could almost rest entirely on the sweetness of their relationship.
Among the parade of kind and dangerous strangers the heroes meet on the journey, special mention must be made to Adèle Exarchopoulos as a perpetually angry, brain-damaged vacationer, Agnès. Her performance, like the film itself, is as magnetic as it is unpredictable. She is both tragic and hilarious – an ineffably eccentric individual in an ineffable eccentric movie and, perhaps as a result, the film’s most relatable character.
Matt Olsen is a largely unemployed part-time writer and even more part-time commercial actor living once again in Seattle after escaping from Los Angeles like Kurt Russell in that movie about the guy who escapes from Los Angeles.