MadS 4K 2024

Definitely one of the really entertaining and noteworthy projects of the past 2024. Under-horror, under-thriller, under-action. If those made-up words come to mind, that's okay, because it's a pretty normal reaction here, as long as you follow director David Moreau through his exuberant imagination. What's the thing with this movie: from the very beginning, the experienced or almost experienced viewer asks questions, speculates, expects answers, but the closer the end gets, the more “MadS” plays on your nerves, hiding the cards up his sleeve. If this pisses you off, no one will say a bad word, because the director didn't emphasize chewing up what he shot.

It is noticeable that to some extent the form rises above the content. The effect of filming in one shot can't help but catch on, creating an appealing moment of presence. With his brains the viewer realizes that the long-begun frame is still intact, but his eyes are greedily absorbed in the screen not to miss some important details. Naturally, if you look closely, you can find skillfully hidden montage stitches in the movie, because the action of the main plot unfolds in the evening and all night long. But personally, we had enough of the director's intriguing invitation into the 89-minute world of French madness with unanswered questions. It turned out to be brutal, interesting and thrilling.

Already the beginning with the then presumed protagonist gives a hot fire when a young guy of rich parents after taking a dose of a new kind of drugs goes out on the street, gets into an excellent “Mustang” and drives to a party. At this point David Moreau decided to add giant letters of the name of his movie, and the young man as if passing by them. It looked wildly cool! Wasting no time, the viewer is immediately confronted with a strange stranger who clearly needs help, but has a hard time explaining what's going on due to certain physical issues. That's it, that's where the madness begins, with no end in sight for people until the last scene.

I would like to quench my curiosity and find out why the three main characters undergo an eerie transformation next to artificial light; what pushes them to do seemingly illogical things; whether it all seems to them or the apocalypse on the streets of the city is real; who are the people in black with masks a la “The Squid Game”. As noted above, there are no answers, and David Moreau kind of explains: there is no time to reveal the first, the second, it suddenly happened, accept the information and just follow the characters further. And so it is, the viewer only has to follow and follow the fearless cameraman, who easily reminded his colleague Pablo from the cult “Reportage”.

Each time the night under review seems to lengthen more and more, not intending to give up its position and give the turn to the sunny day. The mad, marvelous nightmare seems to be out of control, so impenetrable darkness reigns. Of course, the name “MadS” can be interpreted as mad, crazy, frenzied, but still as a variant we can notice that David Moreau simply hid the French word “soir”, and then we get “Mad Soir” - “Mad or crazy night”. It turns out we are all clearly witnessing a short movie story about something incomprehensible happening one crazy night. The only choice left is whether or not to believe it.