‘Incredible But True’ Fantasia Fest 2022 Review – A Completely Off The Wall, But Poignant Story

Plot Summary: Alain and Marie moved to the suburban house of their dreams. But the real estate agent warned them: what is in the basement may well change their lives forever.

Quentin Dupieux is a director that has been firmly a favorite of mine for awhile now. In fact, I believe I’ve seen every single feature film the guy has ever made. Most people will know him as the guy that made a movie about a killer tire called Rubber. However, while I like Rubber, I don’t think it’s his best work, and, for the adventurous film lover, his filmography has a lot more to offer. He has a way of taking genre tropes and completely re-contextualizing them in damn interesting ways. For example, last year he released Mandibles, which played like a wacky ‘90s era buddy-comedy, only this features a giant pet fly. Much like I said in my review for Mickey Reece’s Country Gold, Dupieux is a polarizing filmmaker and one that you find endlessly fascinating or utterly grating. It’s pretty obvious I am in the former camp.

Going into this, I have to say that, shockingly, Incredible But True is maybe the tamest of Dupieux’s oeuvre. Therefore, if you are new to his work, it might actually make a good place to start. The movie starts out like a lightly quirky sci-fi film, introducing a pretty normal couple named Alain and Marie who move into a house that allows you to jump forward in time. It also means that you get three days younger as well. Things however get weirder in typical Dupieux fashion when, at the same time, Alain’s boss gets an electric penis. The gonzo director takes the tired time-travel premise and puts his own spin on it.

This would be amazing all by itself, but the film takes things a step further. In a larger context, this film examines two couples each going through a form of midlife crisis. I’ve never seen a more absurd, but at the same time brutally honest, look at confronting one’s middle age. This is why I think that Dupieux’s films are never just strange for strange’s sake. He is always delighting in remixing genres whilst also having something to say. Dare I say, there is even something quite sweet about the movie towards the end, which I won’t say as to not spoil anything.

At the same time, it has some truly funny bits of dark comedy that is every bit as sharp as in earlier films like Wrong and the aforementioned Rubber. A bit with Alain’s boss Gerald’s crotch catching fire had me in stitches. If I had to lobby a complaint about this and other of Dupieux’s films, it is that his female characters are always underwritten. It’s not to suggest that there is sexist underpinning to his films, I simply think he just doesn’t know how to write complex and interesting females in his films.

The acting is top notch with its leads Alain Chabat, Benoît Magimel, Lea Drucker and Anaïs Demoustier all working really well together. Not only do the actors have a palpable chemistry among each other, but everyone feels like they are on the exact same page. Better yet, each actor gets their own time to shine without ever dominating the scene.

Quentin Dupieux is maybe one of the few filmmakers bold enough to use stale sci-fi trappings and midlife crisis melodrama to tell a completely off the wall, but poignant story. In an age when a lot of indie directors are getting sucked up by the Hollywood machine, I love that Quentin is still making smaller films outside of the big studio. Incredible But True is yet again another fantastic film by a true underground artist.

Incredible But True had its North American Premiere at the 2022 Fantasia International Film Festival. 

Directors: Quentin Dupieux

Runtime: 74m

Cast: Alain Chabat, Anaïs Demoustier, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel