Chevalier

While we wait around for Yorgos Lanthimos to follow up The Lobster with, here's hoping, another oddball otherworldly comedy, Athina Rachel Tsangari's Chevalier will certainly fill the void.

Aboard a yacht somewhere in the Aegean Sea, six wealthy gentlemen spend the days diving and fishing. With repairs to the yacht ongoing, one night sees the group huddle around the candlelit table and, bored, they invent a game: "Who Is The Best In General?" Who among them is an all-round better man? What follows is a series of tests – ranging from skipping stones to the best sleeping posture to blood sugar levels to, yes, even the biggest penis (both in erect and flaccid states) – where the results are jotted down in notebooks. The prize? The titular ring and bragging rights. Although taken as a bit of fun at first the game ratchets up as all go to lengths to keep their shortcomings secret…

A 105 minute pissing contest, Chevalier is a delightful poke in the eye of masculinity and male rivalry. The characters here might be respected and successful men in their own right but underneath they are just boys, the kind who claim their dad is better than yours because such and such. Points are added and taken away willy-nilly: Dimitris (Papadimitriou) can't stand the sight of a needle while the doctor (Kendros) is crap at assembling a flatpack; a shivering Yorgis (Koronis) claims the cold doesn't bother him as they eat dinner on deck one brisk evening. Meanwhile the cabin crew embark on their own competition, betting on who will win.

Co-written with Lanthimos' regular collaborator, Efthymis Filippou, director Tsangari teases out the backstories and character details, all the time working hard at keeping the tone deliberately flat and serious throughout despite the silliness of it all. The only moment that breaks ranks is when Dimitris entertains his friends by lip-synching along to Minnie Ripperton's Loving You. The penis debate is a little too on the nose as well: this is what the film is about and it was unnecessary to address it so baldly. Funny though.

Using the tight confines of the yacht – especially the narrow passageways and cabins below deck - Tsangari creates a claustrophobic air, which helps turn this competition into the be all and end all. When she does take events topside, a now-abandoned but obviously one-time lavish hotel frowns down at them; the remote island seems is an odd setting for such an extravagant hotel and obviously failed to pull the required clients this far south, becoming a mirror to the male folly below.

Occasionally a hoot but always strange, Chevalier doesn't have anything in the tank to crank up the third act and things peter out. Up until then, however, this peculiar comedy-drama will delight.