Final Cut review – a pointless but entertaining remake of a cult classic

More than most films that wind up being sent to the remake factory, Japanese cult horror-comedy One Cut of the Dead felt so synonymous with its country of origin that the mere notion of a French redo feels like a joke from the film. And then there's the fact that the duties for said remake have fallen to The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius, who has made the slightly baffling decision to essentially replicate the original work in a shot-by-shot fashion.

Final Cut's Russian Doll-like concept, which revels in turning the narrative on its head across three distinct sections, is one that works better the less you know going in. The basic gist, though, is that we’re watching the filming of an amateur zombie movie, shot in a single take, courtesy of an insanely haphazard crew led by a volatile director named Higurashi, played here by a very committed and enjoyably OTT Romain Duris.

That Japanese name should serve as an instant clue that something isn’t right. Cue, by design, forty-five minutes of the most baffling, contextless cinema you’ll likely to have encountered in a while, leaving you to ponder whether, as the frantic cast are prone to going off script, turning to bizarre, seemingly random small talk, and generally making an ordeal of their parts, that you're missing something.

Of course, that's the point. When the “credits” roll at the halfway mark, Final Cut spills its guts. What follows makes most sense for newcomers rather than fans of the original who already know its secrets – a funny, lighthearted, and very bloody riff on the communion of cinema that doubles as a meditation on what it takes to pull a production together under extreme duress, intercut with funny asides from audience surrogate/sound man Fatih (Jean-Pascal Zadi), whose bewildered comments lead him to outright steal the movie.

An unchallenging, lighthearted pick for opening feature at this year's Cannes film festival, Final Cut is in essence rather pointless but still makes for largely irresistible viewing in the moment, getting by on account of a game-for-it ensemble – featuring former Artist actress Bérénice Bejo – and an air of playfulness that's increasingly infectious. Best experienced with a large, hungry audience, the final act, especially, delivers an immensely satisfying, machine gun-like spray of setups and payoffs that had the audiences in this press screening in stitches.

Though Hazanavicius attempts to engage with his film's remake status, he only really makes minor diversions from the original text (diehard fans are likely to find this does nothing that the original doesn't do better). This time, the film-within-a-film alludes to a “Japanese original,” and one character from One Cut of the Dead even turns up as though to group the films as part of a new cinematic universe.

It's about as efficient and slick as remakes come, but in upping the budget from $23,000 to somewhere in the millions, the original's raw appeal has been axed. How can this not end up feeling like a waste of time and money when there's a better version of the same film out there, and with roughly the same amount of international appeal? And does a Best Picture winning-director like Hazanavicius have nothing left but remakes in him? With Final Cut, The Artist has revealed he would much rather be The Imitator – a choice that seems premature for a filmmaker surely capable of more.

Final Cut was screened as part of the Cannes Film Festival 2022. A UK release date is yet to be announced.