The Ax (Le couperet) (2005)

Moderate violence, moderate coarse language, moderate sex scene

The cold-blooded dispatch of career rivals has become an essential corporate skill in this sardonic comedy thriller. Proving he hasn’t lost the edge that made him a counter-cultural hero in the 70s (Z, State of Siege), director Costa-Gavras plays murder for cool Hitchcockian suspense, daring us to collude with his middle-class assassin.

Made redundant from his management job in the papermaking industry, Bruno (José Garcia) has been unemployed for over two years. His teenage son and daughter are moping over the family’s cancelled cable TV, and he’s humiliated. Then, without a word to a soul, he hits on a scheme. He cunningly identifies his competitors, then sets out to eliminate each one of them. Soon he’s incorporating body disposals and visits from the cops into his busy bourgeois existence alongside dinner with the kids, and relationship counselling.