Micmacs

For Micmacs, a wacky caper comedy whose physical agility keeps sweeping you in different directions, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet avoids the sentimentality of Amelie or the symbolism of City of Lost Children. Jeunet seems to want to playfully re-invent the kind of kinetic cinematic tricks he played with in Delicatessen. Our humble if not befuddled lead character Bazil, Danny Boon a willowy figure given to comical deadpan expressions, finds himself unemployed after he’s accidentally shot in an incident of random violence and loses his job as a clerk in a video store. In a typical Jeunet flashback at the beginning we see Bazil’s father killed in a munitions accident. There’s a lot of accidents going on.

Bazil finds himself living with other homeless misfits at the local trash dump, only they’ve actually constructed a makeshift living quarters and in the midst of their recycling frenzy they repair all the things thrown away by others.

Bazil enlists his comrades to help him wreck havoc on the life of the industrialists that own the bullet and munitions factories, which conveniently happen to be located across the street from each other.

If you’re familiar with Jeunet films you’ll recognize some familiar faces from his stock characters. If you’re familiar with Major Barbara (George Bernard Shaw play) you’ll find similar concerns with the people who profiteer from death.

- Michael Bergeron