Nocturama [139 points / 12 votes]
"The plan: detonate explosives around Paris, then spend the night in hiding. The conspirators’ refuge: a vast department store. The outcome: not in their favor. That’s the whole 130-minute arc of the shocking thriller Nocturama. Those first and last portions unfold with alacrity, their chronologies sliced and diced, footsteps and gunshots puncturing the air. The middle is a waiting game, as the young culprits kill time with clothes and makeup, food and drink, TV news and go-kart rides. They blast songs — 'My Way,' 'Call Me,' 'Whip My Hair' — which act as droll counterpoint to the action. Sinister camera movements follow them through this languorous interlude past the store’s array of mirrors and closed-circuit cameras.
"From start to finish, Bonello draws on the conventions of crime and horror movies. Consequently, his work’s not only experimental but perversely entertaining, too. The widescreen framing, applied to Parisian architecture both indoors and out, insinuates a terror in open, empty spaces. The precise pacing toys with viewer expectations while expanding the grammar of screen violence. These thrills and chills lack any moral or catharsis. They just linger in the stomach, like a razor it’s failed to digest." ~ Alice Stoehr
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