King Car

A young man's ability to speak with cars leads to a revolution, but soon enough, he finds himself in a fight for survival against the relentless evils of capitalism and its zombie-like dones that worship at its altar.

A Brazilian horror comedy political satire, it’s fair to say that King Car (or “Carro Rei” in Portuguese) is an… unexpected film. It’s a story of a boy who can communicate with his best friend, who is a car, a sentient and somewhat megalomaniacal car who eventually kills the boy’s mother in a car accident, which then becomes a story of romance and of revolution, of jealousy and betrayal, and of cults and hip hop dance teams, all while having real things to say about the dangers of capitalism, and the very real harm that system inflicts on under-resourced communities.

Hands down, it’s a great film. Nothing but pure enjoyment. It’s weird and interesting and funny, and just… really weird.

I loved it.

I mean, there’s this whole part where the cult members start drinking this herbicide/gas/lentil water mix that looks like Cool Blue Gatorade, and it turns them into a hive mind that dresses in matching blue hoodies and tracksuits, who then spend all their time servicing the cult’s cars, all while doing The Robot, or sometimes just doing The Robot together in a big group… and you know what, good for the local dance troupe for getting the chance to do their thing on film, too. It’s got to be a real “see, Dad, those hip-hop dance classes weren’t a waste of time of my time after all!” moment. But I digress, my point is, it makes sense during the movie, but also… it doesn’t make sense at all, but what are you gonna do? It works.

It’s too bad King Car hit the festival circuit at the same time as Titane, because the car-fucking scene that takes place here is (chef’s kiss), and no one is talking about it, mostly because it was overshadowed by the sheer cacophony of coverage of Titane’s car-fucking scene.

Talk about an unforseen difficulty, huh?

How odd is it that two different creators, in two different countries across the world from each other, both included a thematically relevant scene in their movie where a woman has lusty sex with her car, and in the same year too…?

Weird.

Anyway… As for the film itself, King Car may sound strange, and it is, but if you’re open, if you sit down and approach it on its own terms, you may be surprised at how well it works. In my opinion, it’s definitely worth checking out. Honestly, Matheus Nachtergaele’s simian-inspired performance as the fanatical cult leader Uncle Ze is so incredible, so fascinating, that alone makes the film worth checking out.