Bad Blood

Artsy, occasionally inspired piece by French wunderkind Léos Carax, who clearly wants us to know how much he owes to Cocteau and Godard. The pulp-novel plot, which takes a backseat to Carax's moody, romantic visuals, concerns a fictional AIDS-like plague called STBO which one contracts by "making love without love." The majority of those infected are adolescents whose lovemaking had previously been without consequence. The only known serum is locked away at the top of a skyscraper, with a lot of different people trying to get their hands on it. Though the storyline moves in unconvincing fits and starts, Carax gets good performances from his hip young stars--...