The Double (Richard Ayoade, 2013)

After his very assured directorial debut with 2010's coming-of-age comedy Submarine, Ayoade inspires enough trust that it's no surprise to discover his take on Dostoyevsky's hallucinatory parable a highly proficient one. Jesse Eisenberg of The Social Network et al. is good casting, naturally stronger with his gawkishness as the weaker half of the identical pair, though that is fitting too as its the loser who is our eyes and point of entry into the nightmare. But it's perhaps the look of it which is the real star: Brazil without the relief of the brighter interludes, an Orwellian existence hyperrealistically drab enough that the sudden appearance of unironically dreadful Finnish tango stalwart Danny as a nightclub singer stakes overt claim to kinship with Kaurismäki. This makes perfect sense, particularly as the poker-faced auteur started his own career with an adaptation of Crime and Punishment. Anyway, more of the same, please.

7/10