‘Earwig’ Review: A Slow, Squirm-Inducing Exercise in Surrealism
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film CriticFrom its opening shot — a closeup of the nautilus-like curl of a human ear — Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s “Earwig” sets out to unsettle, slowly burrowing its way into our brains by any orifice it can.
Not quite a horror film, this sometimes freaky, often frustrating third feature from the French art-house director of twisted socialization tales “Innocence” and “Evolution” (better known in some quarters as the producer and partner of Gaspar Noé) is light on dialogue, and therefore, largely lacking in explanations for the haunting ideas in store.Hadzihalilovic is a master of atmosphere and tone, but someone not terribly interested in good, old-fashioned narrative.
This project, which she liberally adapted from a short, surrealist novel by retired English art professor B. Catling, trades in the imagery of dreams. “Earwig” subscribes to their logic as well, all but daring audiences not to fall asleep in their seats as it lulls them deeper into a kind of hypnotic trance.
And then, every so often, just when you start to drift, something comes along to jar us awake, like the graphic strangling of a black cat or the business with the girl’s teeth.
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