Titane (R21)
108 minutes, opens March 24, 4 stars
The quietly disturbing Raw (2016), the story of a young vegetarian who discovers human flesh to be a pleasing alternative to carrots, was one of the best movies of the year - in any genre.
Its French writer-director Julia Ducournau comes roaring back with a movie that delves into the same psychosexual space, where anxieties and obsessions blend and bubble, emerging as a set of kinks that are the definition of unsafe sex.
The story opens with Alexia, a hyperactive child distracting her father so much, he crashes the family car. Her skull injury is repaired with titane (titanium in French), the strong metal that gives the film its title. The adult Alexia (played by Agathe Rousselle), now an exotic dancer with a cultish following, is driven by urges that are pleasurable for her but dangerous for everyone else.
Winner of the Palme d'Or at 2021's Cannes Film Festival, Ducournau's work is a wild and creepy mix of man-machine fetish thriller - in the tradition of David Cronenberg's Crash (1996) - and alien-parasite body horror. It is also a commentary on feminism and gender identity that is all Ducournau's own.
Some Women (R21)
70 minutes, opens March 24, 4 stars
This documentary is several things. It is a street-level history of the transgender community in Singapore, outlines the issues affecting its members and depicts how the movement today helps victims of discrimination.
But at the heart of it - and this is perhaps why it won the Audience Choice Award at 2021's Singapore International Film Festival - is the personal story of film-maker Quen Wong.
In today's lingo, the 46-year-old trans woman could be accused of having too much "main character energy", but in this film, she earns the right to take centre stage.
The revelations, put plainly before the camera, must have required that she stifle every instinct that told her to protect her privacy.
Everything Everywhere All At Once (M18)
140 minutes, opens March 24, 4 stars
For a taste of the style of American directing team Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert - collectively known as Daniels - watch their music video for Turn Down For What, a song by DJ Snake and Lil Jon, on YouTube, which has garnered more than a billion views.
The same manic energy, madcap humour and love of riotous action are packed into Everything Everywhere All At Once - an eye-popping package that left this reviewer reeling. Imagine The Matrix (1999), but with jokes about sentient raccoons, to get a sense of the goings-on in this blend of comedy, science fiction and action.
Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) runs a failing coin laundry with husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). She is miserable - her business is to be audited by mean-spirited tax officer Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis); her judgmental father (James Hong) has just moved into her home; and her lesbian daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) is getting serious with a white woman.
