Get the latest gossip
‘Kill the Jockey’ Review: A Colourful Argentine Oddity That Refuses to Stay on Track
A racing accident marks the end of a jockey’s career — but perhaps the arrival of his true self — in Luis Ortega’s eccentric comedy 'Kill the Jockey.'
Restlessly switching lanes from frenzied farce to pulpy gangster movie to gender-confusion musing, Argentine director Luis Ortega ’s alternately dark and daffy eighth feature is suitably untethered for a story concerned with the malleability of the self. Even minus Almodóvar’s direct involvement this time, the influence of the Spaniard’s manic, sensually charged early work is clear, while the distinctive contribution of Aki Kaurismäki’s regular DP Timo Salminen is another stylistic tell: There are shades here of the Finnish veteran’s droll, deadpan absurdism, albeit tempered with a streak of Latin melodrama. Switching between exaggerated sporty silhouettes and thrift-store dishevelment, Beatriz Di Benedetto’s superb costume design assists Remo’s ongoing transformation, while Salminen, working with his signature high-contrast lighting, treats the character in literally painterly fashion: as if constantly sitting for a portrait, settling on an outward image.
Or read this on Variety
