Deerskin is the latest film from French cult filmmaker, Quentin Dupieux, the guy behind oddball pictures such as Rubber and Wrong Cops. It follows the exploits of a lonely man, Georges (Jean Dujardin), who we meet throwing his jacket into a bathroom at a rest stop, after leaving behind what is alluded to be a bad marriage with the little context we get. He soon blows all the money he has on a deerskin jacket that looks to be at least a size too small, but he is infatuated nonetheless, staring at himself in the mirror and admiring his “killer style” as he puts it.
Georges drives into a small town, and takes up a room at a little hotel where he promises to pay later, using his gold wedding ring as collateral. He takes up the persona of a filmmaker, utilizing a camera he was gifted by the seller who gave sold him his new jacket to shoot strange footage where he seems to steal jackets from strangers. He enlists the help of a local bartender/amateur editor, Denise (Adèle Haenel), to assemble the footage as he is driven to more violent impulses. Is it him losing his mind, or is there influence coming the jacket itself?
So, yeah, it’s a Quentin Dupieux movie through and through.
If you’ve seen any of Dupieux’s work, you should already be familiar with his particular brand of dry absurdism, and Deerskin certainly doesn’t sand off the edges. Though, I would say Deerskin is his most easily approachable and accessible by mainstream standards, but that still wouldn’t be saying much. However, there is quite a bit of fun to be had with the way Georges tries to continue his bizarre scheme, and the strange ways his obsession over his jacket manifests in his relationship with the people around him.
As fun as it is, I’m honestly not entirely sure if there is all that much going on under the surface. It would make a solid double feature with one of my favorite films of last year, In Fabric, but it doesn’t quite match that film in terms of bold thematic intentions. There are some broad and minor allusions to masculinity as Georges navigates what initially seems to be a fairly straightforward mid-life crisis until things get weird. But it all kinda seems thin and slight. Thankfully, it’s amusing enough throughout the film to keep things engaging, and it really helps that its runtime is at a breezy 77 minutes. Like the equally bizarre Butt Boy, it knows exactly how to manage its one joke into something manageable and fun without wearing out its welcome.
The film’s biggest weapon is naturally Jean Dujardin, the man whose charm and charisma earned him an Academy Award from his turn in The Artist. From the beginning, there’s something genuinely unnerving about him, but for a solid chunk of the film that element is well hidden under his naturally likable screen presence. Him also sporting an ace dad bod and a rock solid salt and pepper beard definitely helps. He carries the film well, and his dynamic with Haenel (who really shined in last year’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) is compelling.
Despite the wildly offbeat nature of Deerskin, the pleasures of the film are fairly simple. It’s a darkly funny exercise that pushes its premise as far as it can, and it results in an experience that is hard to forget. It’s random, silly, and eventually takes the turn to disturbing, and the whole ride is a lot of fun, even if it will absolutely not appeal to everyone, though that should be expected given the filmmaker we’re talking about here. But for folks out there who can groove with Quentin Dupieux’s specific wavelength, then there is quite a lot to enjoy here, and on top of all that, you get a really engaging lead performance that is both impressive and baffling. Although, that jacket is pretty slick.