Titane – Film Review

A woman named Alexia (Agathe Rousselle), who has a metal plate in her head from a childhood car accident, embarks on a bizarre journey, bringing her into contact with a firefighter who’s reunited with his missing son after 10 years.

There is no denying that Julia Ducournau is a filmmaker that takes huge swings. Everything she has ever been involved with to date is something that doesn’t take a conventional route, instead going for something more psychological and bizarre rather than a straightforward genre film. One of the most talked-about horror movies of the past few years is definitely Raw, and it’s not hard to see why.

With that film, Ducournau could’ve easily just made a film about cannibalism that didn’t attempt to do or say anything new, but she decided to take some huge risks that, in my opinion, paid off immensely. Her newest feature – Titane – also takes some pretty big swings, never once holding the audience’s hand. Sadly, I wasn’t blown away by Titane nor do I think it’s going to be talked about for years to come the same way Raw was.

That’s not to say Titane is a bad movie because it’s most certainly not. There are a handful of scenes here that are absolutely gripping and the film really has a way of making you feel incredibly grimy and dirty afterward (seriously, I wanted to take two showers as soon as the credits rolled) but for some reason, I felt emotionally distant throughout the entire film which is weird because by all accounts, this movie should’ve reeled me in and got under my skin, but it didn’t do that at all.

If I had to pinprick a reason why I’d say it’s because of the film’s writing. Ducournau did a marvelous job at portraying such a grimy city and showcasing a bunch of characters that give you the creeps – especially Alexia – but ultimately, the film takes far too long to explore our main characters, saving that for much later on in the film. The first two acts are definitely entertaining to watch, but while watching them, I just couldn’t help but feel as though I would’ve had even more fun had I known a bit more about the characters.

I’ve seen a ton of people online say that this is the most insane movie of the year and I have to disagree strongly. That, in my opinion, would easily be James Wan‘s Malignant – an extremely weird movie that quite literally doesn’t care what you think about it. Wan throws everything at the wall and sees what sticks and for me, all of it did. Titane is certainly ambitious and it has moments where your mouth will probably be agape, but it’s nowhere close to the insanity I was hoping it would bring.

Once again though, I must reiterate – I did not hate this movie. I didn’t dislike it even. I just couldn’t help but feel as though some of the elements involving the script were a bit lacking. Characters are presented to us and we kind of just have to roll with them until we get to know more about them later on. As a result, I couldn’t emotionally connect to this one, but it’s nevertheless well-directed, superbly acted, and a visual feast.