Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
When two simple-minded best friends find a giant fly trapped in the trunk of a stolen car, they decide to train it in hopes of striking it rich.
Mandibles is a quintessentially Quentin Dupieux absurdist comedy — deadpan, sun-drenched, and utterly singular in its commitment to a premise that no other filmmaker would conceive or execute with such calm indifference. The giant fly conceit is played completely straight, which is the joke, and Dupieux's flat, unhurried style gives it a strange dreamlike warmth. The two leads have genuine chemistry and nail the guileless idiocy required. Cinematography is clean and pleasantly sun-baked but unremarkable. The plot is deliberately thin even by Dupieux standards — more of a shaggy hangout film than a structured narrative — and the ending deflates without quite landing a satisfying punchline. Still, as an object, it's like nothing else.