I Stand Alone

A savage foray into the twisted mind of a sociopath. Picking up where his acclaimed 1991 short Carne left off, Gaspar Noé's feature-length sequel finds his antihero, an unnamed, unemployed, 50-year-old horsemeat butcher (Philipe Nahon), living in a dismal northern French town with his domineering, pregnant girlfriend (Frankye Pain) and her mother (Martine Audrain). An opening slide-show recaps the story thus far: Orphaned by World War II, the butcher grows up hating everything and everybody, then loses the only things he cares about -- his butcher's shop and his mute daughter Cynthia (Blandine Lenoir) -- after he stabs an innocent man in the mouth. The butch...