'Microbe And Gasoline' Not As Fantastic As You'd Think
Filmmaker Michel Gondry, known for his hyper-inventive visual style in movies like The Science of Sleep and Mood Indigo, is back with a new work on boyhood and friendship, but his latest looks quite a bit different than the produced-to-the-hilt movies for which he is known – and, at least for me, appreciated. The difference is so great it's as if the director has challenged himself to take his imagination out of the poetry-and-props clouds and place it into an environment that's earthier, a realm in which the hints of realism could grow.
In some sense, Microbe and Gasoline – a film about two boys taking a roadtrip through France in a homemade go-cart/cabin -- is Gondry doing a different sort of French cinema, one less attached to the lyrically fantastical and more interested reality, be it relationships or landscapes. This change, for some, might be a bit of a let-down. As a fan of Mood Indigo, I like Gondry best when he lets the faucets of his imagination go. (Then again, my tolerance for self-indulgence is grotesquely high.) One the other hand, those easily annoyed by Gondry's frequent flights of fancy might fine Microbe and Gasoline more welcoming, with only occasional, humorous and brief detours.
The best part of Microbe and Gasoline is probably the chemistry between the two young leads. Ange Dargent plays Daniel (or Microbe), a quiet artist who's teased for being short and often mistaken for a girl. Opposite him is Theophile Baquet, who plays Theo (or Gasoline), the flamboyant new kid who's teased for smelling like the grease monkey he undoubtedly is. On summer break, the outcasts leave their cruel home city on homemade wheels – a sort of go-cart that can quickly transform into garden shed, perfect for eluding parents and police. During this expedition, the two find they are both after different things -- love for Microbe; boyhood joy for Gasoline – and the conflicts that arise on the trip end up binding the boys ever closer.
The tone of the movie is classic comedy: it rolls along with a sweet and ever-increasing sense of possibility. But even as the boys' adventure gets going – stopping at such places as a whorehouse barbershop – it doesn't ever feel like it arrives at someplace truly memorable. The trip is funny, endearing, unpredictable and even touching, but it's ultimately unsatisfying. Perhaps this is due to a lack of tragedy, the sort that hits you in the gut. I can't help but wonder if this film on childhood adventure would be stronger if Gondry had employed his signature style. Then again, the director might want adventure himself -- to branch out, as it were. However, this thought now puts me in the position of saying that self-indulgence is, perhaps in this instance, precisely the problem.
Microbe and Gasoline is playing at the Edina Cinema.
