Carcasses

An engaging experiment in observational documentary and improvisational fiction filmmaking, Carcasses is an original and kindhearted portrait of a 74-year-old man who is a compulsive gatherer of unwanted cars and other detritus. His collection forms huge piles of useless and unwanted objects and can be regarded as a commentary on the condition of northern American society.

Denis Côté's fourth film revolves around the daily activities of Jean-Paul Colmor and his 'junkyard.' Colmor is a man whose quiet and strange life is suddenly complicated by the arrival of four young people with developmental disabilities. Observing the quotidian activities of Colmor, and the interactions this quartet of visitors, Carcasses alternates between fly-on-the-wall portraiture to carefully composed sequences that challenge the documentary surface and style of the film. Côté's exploration of a working-class trade on the margins of consumerist society is fascinating not only in its subject matter, but also for how Côté investigates the very nature of documentary cinema itself.

Tom McSorley