 Dir. Remy M. Larochelle, 69 mins Ultimately Mecanix is a fairly short watch and probably one to – in a positive way – just let wash over you! Breathe it in, absorb every frame and take from it what you will – you might grab the storyline, you might not, but this remains an impressively shadowy and surrealist offering either way. If you treat it more as a visual experience than as a movie you might find that’s a better approach to take to get the most out of it. What did I just watch? I suppose that maybe that’s not such an uncommon question around these parts, but Mecanix is a movie that has certainly left me scratching my head – and I don’t mean that as a negative. This Canadian offering – presented in French – is a sort of bleak fairytale, set in a nightmarish future land inhabited by strange creatures that have enslaved humanity. These beings seem to be part mechanical although have something of an organic look about them. The humans in the movie are tortured by their rulers, and serve their whims. The humans’ only hope of freedom – as referenced in the very opening – is the embryo of the universe, which our leads set about beginning to find… What is so strikingly different about this one is its visual style – I don’t fully know what to compare it to, although there are a few leap to mind. If you call to mind maybe the likes of Begotten or Flowers, perhaps even a dash of Tetsuo: The Iron Man, you may have something close, although it’s something else again from those. There are numerous elements of what looks like stop motion, bits of what appear to puppetry and potentially even some Claymation for the bizarre species that has overtaken humanity. There are even a few sections where things are drawn and animated, which adds more to the curious mix. The vast majority of the movie is presented in a very dark sepia, with only the odd cut away from that. That makes it fascinating to look at but – if I was going to criticise – does make it a little bit hard to tell what’s going on at times. Ultimately I didn’t mind too much, because it’s really the look, feel and soundscape of this one that make it most interesting. Like Begotten, the plot can be pretty hard to get at, but that didn’t make me dislike it or lessen my interest any. Half of my summary above was ultimately cribbed from IMDB, which helps it to make some more sense post-fact! There are some criticisms besides the plot being hard to follow – some shots are ultimately repeated without it being clear what they really add, the voice acting maybe isn’t always what it could have been and you might be able to argue even at a mere 69 minutes it’s a bit long. The main criticism I could see people throwing at it would be that it’s pretty pretentious – and perhaps it is, but I’ve never been averse to a bit of pretension in movies. You could also call that aiming high, and thinking differently about cinema, and this feature does both of those things. Ultimately Mecanix is a fairly short watch and probably one to – in a positive way – just let wash over you! Breathe it in, absorb every frame and take from it what you will – you might grab the storyline, you might not, but this remains an impressively shadowy and surrealist offering either way. If you treat it more as a visual experience than as a movie you might find that’s a better approach to take to get the most out of it. RATING: 8/10. I expect this is a movie I’ll be rattling round in my head for a while, and it’ll be interesting to see whether this one is improved or diminished by more time and perspective. I certainly liked what I saw, and it’s clear the director has gone in with a vision unlike much else out there, and I think has been pretty successful in creating it. There are criticisms, sure, and some might write this off as ‘fancying itself’ a bit too much, but I don’t think it fully crosses that line into nonsensical navel-gazing. It’s not a simple watch, and doesn’t spoon-feed a narrative whatsoever, but it’s really something else to look at and a movie that did warm me to it in numerous ways. Regular readers here will know just how much I prize originality, and that’s something Mecanix certainly has in spades. So I’m happy to award this one a very sharp 8/10. You can rent or buy Mecanix at the Unearthed Films Vimeo channel, along with a wide range of other extreme horror movies. Check it out at Unearthed Films Extreme Horror Channel on Vimeo   |
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