FALLING STAR (2023)

Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel (THE FAIRY, LOST IN PARIS) delight audiences with their blend of slapstick and burlesque. Their latest “crime movie” transmutes the codes of film noir through their characteristically colorful palette and clownish plot twists. Abel plays Boris, a former activist hiding from his dark past, keeping in the shadows as a barkeeper, until a one-armed vigilante finally hunts him down. The fortuitous appearance of a double—the depressive recluse Dom (also played by Abel) seems to offer the perfect decoy. But his tenacious and loopy ex-wife, the private eye Fiona (Gordon), could foil their master plan. Abel and Gordon’s memorable dose of hilarity seems perfectly calibrated to the social mood; each deceptively minimalistic set piece brims with a cinematic intelligence that recalls Tati and Keaton. The cast features Philippe Martz and Bruno Romy and the Japanese dancer Kaori Ito, who plays a willful and hilariously unpredictable femme fatale.