The ensemble cast of Gaspar Noé’s deranged new movie, Climax, is made up mostly of nonprofessional actors—of dancers playing dancers, pretending to have the world’s worst collective drug experience. The one exception is the film’s star ringer, Sofia Boutella, who got her start in dance but has transitioned into a Hollywood career, nabbing supporting parts in Atomic Blonde and Star Trek Beyond, as well as the title role in Tom Cruise’s The Mummy.
Climax puts Boutella back in touch with her original passion and livelihood, letting her show off her moves in a way none of her blockbuster projects have. In this exclusive clip from the film, Boutella’s character, Selva, starts tripping hard, expressing her itchy alarm through a kind of solo twist-and-shout dance routine that recalls Isabelle Adjani’s famous freak-out in Possession. It’s the movie in miniature: wild and darkly funny, a nightmare set to a club beat.
Looking for more virtuosic lunacy of that nature? Climax, one of our favorite films of the year so far, is playing in select theaters now.