Sitcom (1998) review

Ozon is one of the most heralded young filmmakers of late and well spoken of in film circles as being an extremely promising talent. Most of those critics, however, were somewhat dismayed in what they consider "simplified" thinking with Sitcom, an "assault" on moral conventions, societal issues and the bourgeois. And yes, while suburbia and 'rich living' have been common targets in the past few years - to the point of being redundant and tiresome - I couldn't help but be consistently amused by the weirdness/psychosis that afflicts a family once the father/doctor brings home a (symbolic) white rat. Contact with the rat causes typically "normal" characters into perverted freaks that freely engage in pretty much every type of sexual taboo imaginable. Ozon's style is strongly reminiscent of Pedro Almodóvar's hip, kinky pictures like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and fans of the Spanish director may find this as sly and consistently cheeky as I did.