Director Jean-Christophe Meurisse has created a film that really has no limit of how low it will go. It has four stories that all take their own paths.
An elderly couple has gone so far into debt that their home will soon be repossessed, so they enter a dance contest in the hopes of winning an SUV and selling it to repay as much of their debt as possible.
Their son is a lawyer trying to climb the corporate ladder as he works for the financial secretary of France who is trying to change his image.
There’s also a young girl who is kidnapped and assaulted by an old man with a grudge against the government not long after her doctor explains to her that she’s entering womanhood and she plans to sleep with her boyfriend.
And the aforementioned lawyer attempts to get past a scandal by committing even greater crimes.
The film moves from rough dialogue to even rougher action; this movie is beyond cynical and dark until it starts to pile shock beyond shock in an attempt at either upsetting or numbing the viewer, depending on who they are.
That said, this movie feels very vibrant in the way that it’s shot, nearly like improvised chaos that all comes together well. This definitely is the kind of movie that people are either going to be major fans or major enemies of.
Blood Oranges is playing Fantastic Fest. We’ll updated this post when it begins streaming.