Film Review - Door Mouse (2022)

And now for something completely different. An off-kilter slice of life equally as fascinating as it is nihilistic, this strange, superb noir journey following scruffy-sexy Mouse (Hayley Law) searching for her missing friend and burlesque colleague at an appropriately grimy establishment.

Following up on leads to a series of missing persons, Mouse draws, dances, smokes and quips her way through clues to locate her mate, the missing performer Doh-Eyes (Nhi Do) leading to a soiree of harsh activities at upmarket but shady establishment, Hotel Sofia. An organised force of criminals has been snatching girls off the street to use in human auctioning in an Eyes Wide Shut‘ masked bidding war.

Mouse volunteers to be kidnapped Risking her life uncovering the truth seems to be the only option for her alongside an almost silent partner in crime Ugly (Keith Powers). Check out better than average Netflix romance in which Powers excels the alluring charm, The Perfect Find (2023).

Both possess complete screen charisma here, in particular lead Law, an untapped principal talent.

As the camera lovingly longs in drawn out close ups of Mouse you cannot escape being mesmerised by immediate natural glowing eyes and a minor smirk on the emotive face of an angel one-minute, deadly combatant the next. My favourite quirk she maintains is a cleverly expressed fixation on paper types.

Door Mouse has high ambitions, interweaving motion art s as part of the plot including the fact Mouse has an unexpected bestselling comic book stocked at the local pop culture outlet. It’s terrific.

Co-stars are of high quality such as Famke Janssen as house of burlesque owner Mama, iconic Donal Logue as a barfly regular, underappreciated Landon Liboiron of the striking thriller, Come True (2020) as Kelly and Elizabeth Saunders, effective in television series From (2022) equally as authoritatively smug here as The Dame. Keeping it real costume design on a low budget created by Jennifer Lantz, dazzles.

Writer, director, star Avan Jogia has come a long way since I spotted his Shakespeare triumph as Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream (2017) this alternative noir opus Door Mouse may be grim, bitter and bleak but it’s a hell of a lot of fun capturing the viewer in a sphere of surprises.