Michel Hazanavicius’ meta zombie flick Final Cut (Coupez!), a French-language remake of Shin’ichirō Ueda’s 2017 cult film, One Cut of the Dead, opens this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Set in a disused factory, we follow a small film crew as they shoot a low-budget, Z-grade, zombie film, headed by tyrannical director, Rémi (Romain Duris). Rémi is willing to do whatever it takes to elevate the sincerity of his film, even if that means keeping the camera rolling while crew members start to turn into zombies themselves.

The most joyful aspect of Final Cut is how cleverly everything slowly begins to unfold. As each new piece of the puzzle is revealed and slid into its place, you gain a little more insight into what’s really been going on, making you eager for more. The biggest issue here is when we are taken out of the action-packed set and back into the real world. This portion, although necessary, is drawn out far too long, which would have hurt the story more had it not been saved by such an entertaining second half.

In the same way, some of the gags featured have been done similarly before in other comedies and could have easily fallen flat, but they land almost every single time because they’re all smaller parts of a successful whole. This is especially due to the talents of the leads – Duris, Bejo, Lutz, and Oldfield, who each bring something unique to the table in the portrayal of their characters that make this absurd mess such a blast. 

The blood-soaked and extremely meta Final Cut delivers plenty of laughs that are both smart and just downright silly, making for a delightfully grisly moviegoing experience. Not only is the payoff at the end so satisfying when all the elements finally come together, but also surprisingly heartfelt.

RATING: 3/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Romain Duris, Bérénice Bejo, Finnegan Oldfield, Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Grégory Gadebois

DIRECTOR: Michel Hazanavicius

WRITER: Michel Hazanavicius

SYNOPSIS: A small film crew shooting a low-budget zombie movie are attacked by real zombies.

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