Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: KING CAR [Fantasia Film Festival 2021 - Virtual]
Movies about relationships to cars are everything from mythic ("Bullitt") to overblown and campy ("F9") but mixing the weird, science fiction element of it is rarely done. "Christine" did its approach. "Herbie" is an interesting one to mention simply because the old films (not the Lohan one at all) had a small degree of darkness to them even though it was slapstick. You can see some of Buddy Hackett in the mechanic in ""King Car" which is set in Brazil in a junkyard. There is an interesting though odd backdrop of agriculture and social justice which provides a theme but not a secure enough backbone. The film reflects in the garage where a car almost forms its own cult. It is something far off but closer to "Fight Club". There is also an essence of "Titane" (which this reviewer has not seen but the sexuality as metaphor comes in to play). While the lead character is Uno and his love interest Amora, they are by far the less interesting character than the lead mechanic Ze who seems a little off mentally or has Tourette's.
He is a beautifully complicated character brought to life by Matheus Nachtergaele who is just fantastic from maniacal to gleeful to borderline innocent. From his invention of a stamping light on the pelvis of his girl (per se) Mercedes to his translator for car commands, it is just out there and brilliant. The movie is more worth it to watch him than even the cars who start their interesting build of control. The movie keeps everything in check while understanding its tongue in cheek (with the exception of the Uno/Amora plot). The whole aspect of nature versus technology is a big theme and while the phosphate/fuel aspect (obviously a bigger issue in Brazil) is actually personified physically but it is not as clear as it should be. One sequence involving ingestion is interesting yet off the wall (but almost an a lyrical way). "King Car" is fun in that it wants to tell different stories in the phrase of genre but Ze steals the movie away from everyone, even with his dancing. B
By Tim Wassberg
