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‘Else’ Review: A Pandemic Romance Morphs Into Bleak Body Horror in Bonkers French Flick
'Else,' which premiered at TIFF's Midnight Madness, studies a pandemic romance put through the gauntlet of body-melting body horror.
Meeting them as we do (naked, he on top of her, struggling and then failing to stay inside her) you’d be forgiven for thinking “Else” was a colorful romp where the comedy of her throwing a half eaten fig on the floor (as he looks on in horror) was front and center. As a montage of social media-posted pics chronicles their meet-cute at a party the night before, Anx is concerned with one detail in a photo that features neither of them: a man grabbing some popcorn has some odd welts on his other hand. As “Else” jumps from a hazed daydream romance (with home video-like imagery to match) to a bleak lo-fi sci-fi proposition (bleached of all color, its horrors all the more elemental), it is cinematographer Léo Lefèvre who emerges as the film’s MVP.
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