Je me tue à le dire

A hirsute sad sack's inability to escape a monumentally needy mother – or his own paranoid fixations on mortality – are the stuff of idiosyncratic comedy in this debut narrative feature. Not so far-flung from the fate-controlled, aggressively quirky cinematic universe of fellow Belgian Jaco Van Dormael, Xavier Seron nonetheless gives this black-and-white tale its own distinctive aesthetic and tonal character. Our first glimpses of Michel (Jean-Jacques Rausin) are as a babe suckling at his mother's ample breast and as a 37-year-old adult trying on a coffin for size – signposts of a character whose present-tense life goes nowhere while he continually obsesses over its origin and demise. An unsuccessful aspiring actor, Michel despairs of his general stasis, dividing his free time between his mom and his equally dependent girlfriend, setting up inventive scenes based around off-kilter character dynamics and other incongruous elements. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)