X14 (2022)

Liz, thirty-something, lives in her appartement in the Paris suburbs with her cat and her robot butler. Somewhere between a peaceful Golddorak and a protective creature from Studio Ghibli, with a punky Mohican and two blue LED eyes, X14 looks after the home. He is a music-lover, affectionate and a tad jealous. She is tall and thin, with diaphanous skin and a limpid gaze. She is living with an artificial heart and waiting, rather hopelessly, for a transplant. A cyborg princess with a (real) heart problem. In mini shorts, black tights and a hoodie, an electronic arsenal of batteries strapped to her torso, like Lara Croft by day and Fantomette by night, the badass heroine goes on one Tinder date after another without much enthusiasm and copes with life as best she can. Liz and X14's rather sedate daily routine is turned upside down when Harvey, a zany thirty-something Prince Charming, comes along determined to take his place alongside the sick princess. Emulating the narrative codes of the fairy tale, X14 develops its plot around its feisty, tragic heroine and colourful supporting roles - a wacky neighbour on a spiritual quest, an exasperating mother on a telephone screen and an asthmatic surgeon brimming with enthusiasm - all of whom are played with relish by Denis Lavant, Jeanne Balibar and Emmanuel Salinger. In a fully-asserted lo-fi aesthetic, combined with a skittish editing style, Delphine Kreuter's camera swirls, bumps, alternates between objective and subjective views of the robot and takes us from one place to another in grey, suburban Paris. An intense burst of energy, X14 is a film as surprising as it is explosive, like the fireball propelled by its heroine, Kame Hame Ha, straight out of an episode of Dragon Ball Z, which carries the film away in a devastating final flourish.