Chevalier

Description

Boys will be boys … and so will men when left to their own devices, isolated onboard a luxury yacht in Athina Rachel Tsangari’s droll plunge into the male competitive spirit. When six well-to-do Greek men (a mix of brothers, in-laws, business partners and friends) grow bored with their vacation on the Aegean Sea, they concoct a wholly illogical and dead serious testosterone-fueled competition to determine who is “the best in general.” The premise, agreed upon in dramatic candlelight, is simple: not only shall each man devise challenges for the group to undertake, but in between these contests they also will be judged on any element another man deems important. Namely, everything. What ensues is a white-collar fight club series of contests and critiques ranging from petty, to hilarious, to outright cringe-inducing. Dental hygiene, coffee preference, sleeping posture, anything might win a competitor points or subtract from his total. And inevitably, virility will be called into question and, ahem, manhood … measured. Tsangari brilliantly mines the comedy underlying first-world egos and the unease of male friendship, while simultaneously maintaining the very serious tone of her characters. She sets the scene and lets the absurdity of the premise and the neuroses of the sparring men snowball naturally in this perfectly pitched satire. —Laura Henneman

Film Details