Peacock

Bernhard Wenger’s acidly funny, consistently unpredictable feature debut is a bittersweet satire starring Albrecht Schuch (All Quiet on the Western Front), in a role taking full advantage of his gift for physical comedy and capacity for pathos. As Matthias, the CEO and public face of Vienna-based rent-a-friend agency My Companion, his commitment to being the perfect professional shapeshifter begins to take a toll on his relationship with girlfriend Sophia (Julia Franz Richter) and, eventually, his own psychic integrity. PEACOCK is a stinging send-up of a hustle-driven contemporary culture that preaches micromanaged self-optimization and the reduction of interpersonal relationships to “emotional labor,” made with a scrupulous eye for the telling detail and an unfaltering sense of compassion.