Estonian filmmaker Veiko Õunpuu follows the lead of Bosch and other painters in taking St. Anthony's demonic torment as an inspiration to strut his stuff. But a more modern martyr drifts through his movie's meticulous black-and-white panoramas: Tony (Taavi Eelmaa) is a nattily dressed factory manager with a frizz of close curls, a shaken-awake stare, and, lately, doubts. The challenges that beset Tony have the familiar dark humor of Scandinavian absurdism—e.g., being asked to sack an entire plant for underperforming by four-tenths of a percent—but Õunpuu also aims to stun with wondrous visuals. There's less a plot than a series of moody set pieces: a funeral procession upstaged by a careening car in deep focus; a mysterious, recurring black dog; a nefarious underworld cabaret that's emceed by art-house freak-mascot Denis Lavant (on mini-accordion). As in the... More >>>