With his exhilarating second feature, Leos Carax infuses a neonoir scenario with a delirious strain of doomed romanticism for a tour de force of avant-pop invention. Amid the spread of STBO—a sexually transmitted disease acquired by having sex without emotion—a young ex-con (Denis Lavant) is recruited by a veteran criminal (Michel Piccoli) to steal the antidote, only to find himself entangled in a dangerous affair with his new associate’s lover (Juliette Binoche). Constructed with the kinetic verve of a musical, Mauvais sang explodes in moments of pure cinematic adrenaline, from a dizzying skydive to Lavant’s heart-pounding nighttime sprint set to David Bowie’s “Modern Love.”
