Mandibles review – pretty fly for a couple of French guys

Sometimes a movie is just a movie. And sometimes a movie about a giant fly is just a movie about a giant fly. French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux has spent much of his career prodding and poking at the conventions of cinema – his deadpan farces, like Rubber and Deerskin, play out as elaborate jokes or deconstructions. Often there is no punchline. Dupieux's aim seems to lie in just how far he can push the most pointless conceit imaginable without losing the audience.

In his latest feature Mandibles, he pushes it pretty far. As a riff on Dumb and Dumber-style American comedies, it finds two hapless friends-cum-petty criminals (played by David Marsais and Grégoire Ludig) hired to transport a mysterious box across the country. The only problem? For no apparent reason, there's a dog-sized fly in the trunk of their car. Naturally, they decide that training the fly – which they name Dominique – to steal things for them is the best plan of action (“Like a drone”).

Things take a turn when one of the duo is mistaken for somebody else and they're invited to relax at an expensive house in the hills. Mandibles suddenly reprioritises as a film about the pair as they attempt to leech off their hosts for as long as possible, though one of the guests – played by Blue Is the Warmest Colour's Adèle Exarchopoulos – begins to suspect something's not right. In a conceit that isn't quite as funny as it's meant to be, she's only able to shout every sentence at the top of her voice, which creates further complications.

The film – light as a feather – has no qualms with changing lanes, abandoning and picking up the Dominique plot on a whim. The energy really is that of something that has been made up on (ahem) the fly. That's both Mandibles best attribute and its biggest flaw; sometimes you wish there was a little more to get your teeth into, but the randomness is also what makes it so charming. That, and the presence of Dominique, who – as a physical puppet with heaps of personality – makes quite a buzz in spite of her limited screen-time.

Mandibles might be the most overly – and perhaps purposely – pointless film of Quentin Dupieux's career to date (which is really saying something), the director pushing the notion of a film about nothing to its breaking point. To his credit, that doesn't make it any less enjoyable to sit through – at just 71 minutes, the pace never slackens. Say what you will about Dupieux, but he's one filmmaker who really understands the power of brevity.

Mandibles was screened as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival 2021. It will be released in UK cinemas on 15 September.