Eight years. That's how long we've waited for a new Carlos Reygadas film. Now it's finally here, and based on the first reactions out of its New York Film Festival premiere, a consensus has emerged: what did I just watch?
"Heil Jupiter!" was formerly titled "Wake of Umbra." It had its world premiere in NYFF's Currents sidebar, not the Main Slate. IONCINEMA has speculated that the film was shunned by the Cannes, Venice and Toronto selection committees precisely because of how impenetrable it is reported to be. After seeing the reactions, that's easy to believe.
So, what's it about? Officially, it follows two young couples who enter a realm of shifting realities, unaware that a mysterious entity is observing them from above with God-like judgment. Unofficially, it's Reygadas making a dystopian surveillance movie in his own way.
Next Best Picture's Tom O'Brien gave the clearest account of the plot. The four protagonists are young painters on a seaside trip, and their opening encounter in the surf escalates into a firelit orgy with a group of cave painters. Then the film swerves. It jumps to a wintry Poland, where an AI-guided police squad chases a suspect, seen entirely through an officer's helmet cam. The raid ends with the arrest of Tzina. The crime turns out to be pleasure itself. A trial follows over charges of enjoying sensual pleasures, which the regime strictly forbids. The case rests on surveillance camera footage, and the courtroom collapses into chaos once onlookers realize nobody is safe from being watched.
In between, Reygadas throws in whatever he likes. O'Brien mentions nighttime forest fires burning on a mountain, alongside footage of piglets being born and a colonoscopy. Lol. The dialogue is also recorded in a made-up language, so the regime can't be pinned to any one country. Oh, and the film is almost three hours long.
The reviews have been mixed. THR calls it "nearly three hours of head-scratching nonsense." The review also has a line that captures the overall mood of the reception: "what the hell is going on here?"
According to one attendee, Reygadas said at the Q&A that NYFF artistic director Dennis Lim was "brave" for programming the film. Then again, none of this should surprise anyone who remembers "Post Tenebras Lux," which was booed at Cannes and then won Best Director. Reygadas has been provoking audiences since day one. His debut, "Japón," earned a Caméra d'Or Special Mention at Cannes in 2002, but it was also censored in Britain over scenes of real cruelty towards animals. Then came "Battle in Heaven" in 2005, which caused much controversy with its explicit sex scenes. Just two years later, he pulled a complete 180 with "Silent Light," a rare controversy-free entry in his filmography that also happens to be his masterpiece.
I have no idea if I'll ever get to see "Heil Jupiter!" in a theater, or at all. MK2 Films has picked up international sales, but whether a U.S. distributor will take on nearly three hours of unsimulated sex, colonoscopy footage and an invented language is up for debate.
