Drenched in bold visuals and plenty of characters that are just as colorful, director and writer Claude Schmitz’s Belgian-French crime thriller The Other Laurens is a neo-noir journey into the criminal underbelly with a pinch of dry humor and absurdity. 

Claude Schmitz’s exposure to film at a young age greatly differed from the cartoons and animated movies most kids soak up. At 12 years old, he lived in a boarding school where a Roman Catholic Father would show 35mm prints of European arthouse films from directors like Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman. “These films were my first real aesthetic shocks,” Schmitz explains. “I discovered obscure stories that fascinated me and that I didn’t understand at all.”

During his time later on at another boarding school, the administration had much different cinematic experiences in store. American B movies from ultra-masculine stars like Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, and Sylvester Stallone were screened for the students. Drawn to the exaggerated movies that “conveyed simplistic and caricatured narrative schemes,” the Belgian filmmaker then had these dual fascinations of American and European influences ingrained in his imagination. Schmitz’s new film The Other Laurens is the perfect answer to what happens when European auteurs and American silliness collide. 

Part Neo-noir thriller and part dark comedy, The Other Laurens never lingers on one feeling for too long. Olivier Rabourdin plays the disgruntled (and slightly disheveled) Gabriel Laurens- a private eye in Brussels, Belgium investigating cheating spouses and not much else.

After his twin brother François dies, Gabriel is visited by his teen niece Jade who wants Gabriel’s help in uncovering the truth about how her father died. The investigation leads Gabriel into a criminal underworld that extends far beyond his wheelhouse after he arrives at François’ extravagant residence in the southwestern French town of Perpignan.

The rich, bold, daytime hues and neon-soaked nighttime frames of cinematographer Florian Berutti envelope the screen with a lush visual palette that captivates from start to finish. A flourish of composer Thomas Turine’s 80s-style synths layer in and out throughout the movie, and with a 70s Neo-noir attitude and archetypes from classic film noirs, Schmitz soaks the screen with an array of genres and influences. 

Schmitz resists the stereotypical redemption arc of making the cantankerous Gabriel into a fully reformed man whose moral compass leads to outright victory. Instead, Gabriel slowly immerses himself into the lavish, lurid lifestyle that he once detested. He dons his twin’s expensive clothes and even has a fling with the mistress. Louise Leroy’s depiction of the grief-ridden yet self-assured Jade is the heart of the film, and is perhaps the most “normal” character that the audience can emotionally invest in, considering the circumstances. 

Rather than laying out a constantly winding story, the secrets unfold slowly, and maybe a little too slowly at first. This isn’t a narrative stacked with clues and suspects. The emphasis is on the characters and the stylish visuals, as Gabriel and Jade contend with either other and with film noir classics like crooked cops, seedy criminals, and the femme fatale, but in a violent and at times darkly humorous way. The pace picks up in the second half of the story, and after exposition is spilled out within the dialogue during the last 30 minutes, we’re left with a bewildering ending that sits right at home between the unpredictability of arthouse cinema and the bombastic violence of American B movies. 

It’s an impressive debut for Claude Schmitz, and an entertaining, left-of-center debut for film fans wanting a little absurdity with their crime thrillers. 

The Other Laurens is now screening at select Alamo Drafthouse theaters in New York, L.A., and Austin. It will be available via VOD on August 27.