Georges, 44 years old, and his jacket, 100% deerskin, have grand plans in director Quentin Dupieux's latest cinematic oddity, destined for cult status.
This is one hell of an unexpected hit. The preposterous absurdity of the film is so in-your-face and yet subtle all at the same time. Deerskin is written, directed, and edited by Quentin Dupieux, and while one would be forgiven for thinking this will be a poorly made film with all of these roles going to a single person, the small scale of the film (and the surprisingly basic premise) makes it more than manageable.
Jean Dujardin is our main character, Georges, and does a great job of portraying a man deep in crisis. Having found himself going through a difficult time, suddenly alone and without financial support in a quiet backwater town, his subsequent unhealthy obsession with his deerskin jacket is a source of both comedy and sympathy. The story snowballs in such a satisfying way. Beginning in a delightedly odd fashion, Georges way of dealing with his grief start to escalate as delusion leads to obsession, and his single-track vendetta becomes less and less compromising.
It's this uncompromising nature that allows such a sudden change in tone from comedy-drama to comedy-horror. While it doesn't hold tension or suspense like a pure horror, it creates another source of comedy that works surprisingly well. Deerskin is a refreshingly unorthodox black comedy, that guarantees some unexpected laugh-out-loud moments and a little bit of gore thrown in for good measure.
The film is completely aware of what it is and points fun at the critical interpretations that reviewers can associate with such simple ideas. Georges vindication is clear and, as such, his deerskin jacket provides Georges with exactly what was missing in his life; a sense of purpose. The cinematography is fine, with a fair amount of handheld camera footage used in a manner that fits with the overall storyline, and the colour palette is rather bland and uninspiring which sets the tone for the town.
Deerskin is absurd in its simplicity. A joyful look into a slightly unhinged man that loves the 'killer style' of his newly purchased anthropomorphic deerskin jacket.