Olivier Assayas directs Connie Nielsen, Charles Berling and Chloë Sevigny in this erotic thriller where a corporate double agent finds herself manipulated by everyone during the company takeover of an animated Japanese adult entertainment firm.

Even though it begins rather staid and muted this is not a film to watch on public transport. An uncanny mix of Videodrome and The Office the thriller aspects are undercranked but decent. Connie Neilsen’s business suited spy is slowly and emotionlessly exposed to extreme deviant pornography while being dominated by ever changing antagonists. Pretty much everyone pulls her strings at some point (controlling her like a cam girl in many ways), and because half the film she is casually watching hardcore imagery then by association so are we. Assayas is trying to make another one of his cold, detached essays on how modern life is rubbish. Everything we see from our POV clearly is not the full story, though you’ll probably guess how it is going to end very early on. It passes an evening neatly but doesn’t stick. It does however have a shot of Chloë Sevigny playing PlayStation in the nude so it certainly isn’t unworthy of a watch.

6

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