"One of the most bizarre cinematic experience you'll ever encounter..."

It's been 13 years since innovative French film maker Leos Carax last made a movie, but he's returned on fine form with Palme d'Or nominated Holy Motors - a film that is as freakishly absurd as it is compelling and brilliant.

We follow a day in the life Monsieur Oscar (Denis Lavant), an eccentric and mysterious Parisian who conducts a series of "appointments" across the day, whereby he physically transforms himself into a vast array of surreal and overstated figures, partaking in a series of events under the guise of his creative, fictitious creations.

Oscar prepares for his personal adventures in the back seat of a stretch limo, driven by the collected and seemingly unashamed Céline (Edith Scob). As she opens the door to Oscar he instantly becomes characters that range from the likes of a little old lady who silently begs for money on the streets, to a hyperactive and vicious creature who kidnaps supermodel Kay M (Eva Mendes). He also encapsulates figures such as an assassin, a beleaguered father picking up his daughter from a party - to a man fighting for the love of a former lover (Kylie Minogue). Each roles he tackles sincerely, as Oscar capriciously transforms himself from one character to the next, each one bringing its own level of personal significance.

Holy Motors is a film that blurs the line between what is real and what's not, as a feature that is to be interpreted in whatever way you see fit. Despite being a film that focuses on the life of a man whose entire life is one great, fantastical deception - Holy Motors is in itself a misrepresentation as what appears to be a mere outlandish and grotesque tale of one man's fantasy, is in fact about a man who is evidently desperate to escape from his very own reality, as underneath the flamboyant illusion, lies a film that is deeply poignant and somewhat upsetting. 

Oscar's life is seedy, gritty and quite dark, as these characters he take on almost represent a host of people he wishes himself to be - from the normality that exists in the likes of the father collecting his daughter, to the monstrous surrealism of the convulsive creature who eats flowers at graveyards and bites the fingers off photographer's assistants - as if Oscar is becoming the people he knows he simply can't become otherwise, people society simply wouldn't accept.

There is an uneasy, discomfort surrounding our lead, someone whom we view upon with an unhealthy balance of pity and disgust - his lifestyle reflected in his use of a limousine. Of course it may appear to lavish and grand from the outside, but inside it's dark and sad, and effectively just a regular vehicle, much like our protagonist.

Enormous credit must go the way of Lavant who turns in an incredible performance as our lead - one of the finest you'll see all year. One can only imagine how you would prepare for such a role. His physicality is what is so striking, as he manages to transform his body and entire demeanour to suit that of each individual character he is undertaking - imperative to fully believing in this role, as every one of his different enactment's are entirely conceivable, therefore enhancing the general public's response to each character he portrays.

Holy Motors is extremely memorable, in what is one of the most bizarre cinematic experience you'll ever encounter. On the outside this is a film that is potentially without substance, but upon reflection there is a great depth behind every nuance implemented by Carax. And if you need any other endorsement to go and see this movie - it's got Kylie Minogue in it speaking in French. Which reminds me, probably best not to take my dad to this one, it may just prove to be too much for him to handle.