Directed by Harpo Guit and Lenny Guit
Belgium, France | 2024 | Fiction | 87 min | French w/subtitles
Sunday, October 19 | 4:30 PM | BB
Friday, October 24 | 4:30 PM | BB
Heads or Fails is an ode to chaos theory and to gross-out comedy. The Guit brothers’—Lenny and Harpo—sophomore effort, after the cult Sundance hit Mother Schmuckers, is a wonderful sugar rush of a movie. Full of pizzazz and lo-fi visual wit—not to mention a dose of Run Lola Run, maybe even a dash of Uncut Gems, too—this cubic zirconia gem is easy to underestimate but is low-key one of the year’s funniest and most kinetic comedies. Shot in the Guits’ gleefully garish digital style, with an oversaturated color palette that tastes like melted Jolly Ranchers, the film follows Armande Pigeon, self-proclaimed Queen of Shenanigans. Love her or hate her (for what it's worth, I find her impishness endlessly endearing), there's no denying that she’s a brilliant comic creation from actress Maria Cavalier-Bazan. Armande doesn’t have a job and sleeps on a dirty fold-up cot in the living room of an old woman. She owes months of back rent and is on the verge of getting kicked out of this squalid flat, so she needs some fast cash. After exhausting all the friends she can scam, she teams up with recent hook-up Ronnie to get into a high-stakes card game. When dumb luck results in a huge windfall, she sets her sights on bigger and bigger scores, trying to take this winning streak as far as it can possibly go. ~OO