Trouble Every Day is a perverse and challenging tale, a uniquely sensual metaphorical dramatization of sexual obsession. Denis has earned her reputation as a critics' darling with visually compelling and thoughtful films like Beau Travail, and has dealt with similar dark subject matter in the serial killer drama I Can't Sleep. It's safe to say that, despite many esthetic similarities to her earlier films (elliptically presented narrative, little dialogue, sumptuously intimate visuals), Trouble represents new territory for the filmmaker. Denis is clearly unconcerned with genre conventions, and her film doesn't adhere to the traditional rhythms of the horror film. Her focus is not on suspense or narrative drive, but on insatiable lust as human disease and its analogous resolution in the consumption of human flesh. Vincent Gallo, with his grungy hangdog looks, and Beatrice Dalle, with her uniquely feral facial features, are perfectly cast as the afflicted carnivores. As their respective spouses, fragile beauty Tricia Vessey and stoic Alex Descas do solid work. The film's truly gruesome and extremely unnerving erotic encounter scenes, including Gallo's dalliance with a hotel chambermaid and especially Dalle's seduction of a young delinquent, push the film into new territory, literalizing sexual appetite in a visceral way. You expect Denis to cut away from the blood and gore, but she lingers on it like a lover cuddling up after sex. These scenes are powerful -- dark, erotic, and even funny, if viewed from the remote perspective Denis' approach fosters.

-KENTFLIX