Happy Nous Year

Two people get stuck in an elevator.

Yeah, that's pretty much the plot. On the positive side, the movie doesn't try to milk this idea for a perplexingly long runtime. Even counting the credits, it's only 60 minutes. I'm a bit surprised (and confused) about how this wasn't full of filler. Maybe Netflix decided there's a market for movies not much longer than a short.

I guess this is what's known as a "meet cute". You know, when two characters are ostentatiously forced together in a quirky way so they can fall in love with each other. A stopped elevator is as good a setup as any. The characters don't have anything to do but have quirky and funny interactions with other and abruptly fall in love. Even though most people would probably just stare at their cell phone in awkward silence for an hour.

One joke is recycled a few times: someone says "I'm not an X", they briefly argue about whether the character is an X, and eventually both agree the character is, in fact, an X. It's not exactly laugh out loud funny, but as far as running jokes go, it's alright. It does admirably condense the character development as the leads are forced to acknowledge their foibles.

The two often walk outside of the elevator into each others' memories and daydreams. This is reasonably creative. I thought the writer-director was trying a bit too hard to make everything exaggeratedly quirky, but I guess the requirements of the genre somewhat force this.

In genres that appeal to us, we can fall back on the enjoyable cliches. A science fiction fan can ignore a movie's terrible plot and enjoy the imaginative special effects. I'm not a fan of romantic comedies, so when I watch a mediocre one, it's just a mediocre experience -- there's nothing to fall back on. If you're a fan, though, you'll probably enjoy watching these two doofuses flirt with each other. Perhaps the draw is that if these two can find love, maybe we can, too.

A movie like Muriel's Wedding functions well as a character study. Wristcutters takes all the indie cliches you can think of and twists them into something offbeat. Romantic comedies can be funny, insightful, and genuinely quirky. This one isn't really any different than the others that you might encounter on a streaming service, except that it's in French and respects your time.

No English dub. Just subtitles.

Quite entertaining despite its obvious set limitation and storyline that harkens back to earlier produced comedies on film.

Adams and Lallouche have great chemistry together and you don't get tired watching their antics. Many funny and witty lines. My favorite is when Gael opens the bag and he takes out a ukelele and he tells Hannah (spelt with 2 Hs, one at the beginning and one at the end. This, too, is a funny line, by the way) that it's the guitar for losers.

Despite the limited set inside an elevator where they're stuck together, the plot doesn't lag or gets tiresome because of the witty dialogue. Their recounting of past events in each other's lives where they are inside those stories adds to the film's appeal although such a device may not be original. Still, in this film, it's quite appropriate and it clicks with the viewer (meaning, me).

This is something you can watch definitely on New Year's Eve. Begin it with laughter.

This French movie would have been bad if longer. With 59 minutes, it's perfect length to explore the topic.

So many movies should be shorter. Instead the director drags the storyline to 1 5 to 2 hrs, which kills the movie !

Very good casting .

It's great the characters move though various episodes of their respective lives through a third dimension.

This is where this movie makes it more interesting than others where the characters are in one spot throughout the movies.

These characters move to the actual various incidents in their life through a clever opening.

It's a good movie to enjoy.

A very good discovery !

The choice of format is interesting, we could think that 59 minutes is not enough long and yet it's more than enough for the story.

It's the same for the actors, a reduced team with Kev Adams and Camille Lelouche during most of the movie, even if the story talks about the fact that they are stuck together in an elevator, it is managed to take us beyond this situation to make us discover an imaginary world that we would not necessarily expect.

The scenes are funny, the images successful and the story is also touching and human.

I particularly appreciated, a good moment of escape !