Fantastic Fest Review: Paul Verhoeven's Surprising and Masterful 'Elle'

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The question we should be asking isn’t where has director Paul Verhoeven been for the past decade. The question is where has this Verhoeven been all our lives? The director whose career skyrocketed with Total Recall and Basic Instinct hasn’t released a film since 2006’s Black Book, the Dutch filmmaker’s return to his homeland. We hoped whatever Verhoeven had in store for us next would be a return to the trashy good form with which the filmmaker had become known, and Elle, his latest, doesn’t disappoint. It isn’t what was expected, either, instead he gives us an eye-opening and wholly unique look at one woman’s attempt to connect with any man in her life: her son, her ex-husband, her mass-murderer father, or even her rapist. ›››

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