15 Insane Movies That Shouldn't Have Worked

11. Holy Motors (2012)

Leos Carax's black comedy about a performance artist (Denis Lavant) who portrays various different roles over the course of a day - for no discernible reason, it seems - is essentially a highly entertaining series of skits tied together by the loosest, vaguest narrative thread.

The nature of the man's performance is never explained and the audience is generally left to their own devices to figure it out, with the most prominent theory being that the film is a commentary on the nature of Hollywood itself.

There's bizarre motion-capture sex, talking cars, a Kylie Minogue cameo, and Lavant kidnapping Eva Mendes while performing as a crazed, red-haired, flower-eating maniac called Monsieur Merde (yes, that's "Mr. S***").

If you're craving a clearly coherent story, Holy Motors isn't the film for you, but considering how easily such a bold, uncompromising vision could've gone so appallingly off the rails - or worse still, boring - it's impressive how smoothly controlled and consistently engrossing it is.