American Bistro

With a TV-14 rating (via On Demand) we thought this would be okay to watch with our family. WRONG!! Within the first 5 minutes it became obvious it was not a family movie, especially for families trying to teach wholesome values. Come on, real dialogue would have been nice instead of using four-letter words to fill up space and time. Hoping that the beginning language loss was just for shock value we were wrong and turned it off a few minutes later.

American Bistro Is the Feel Good Movie of the Year

American Bistro grabs the audience's attention from the start and doesn't let go until the end. In the first scene a young man named Edmund (portrayed by Arthur Diennet) is grieving over his past actions and pondering the consequences. He asks that question that we all have asked. The question that is impossible to answer, "what if."

And the tone is set for the rest of the movie. Arthur Diennet wrote the script which he also directed and produced. He takes the viewer on an emotional, but joyous, ride as he investigates the themes of love, loss, anger and regret.

In his state of confusion about life, Edmund turns to his uncle Medor (played by Diennet's real life father Marcel Diennet - Medor is also gripping with loss and regret.

Marcel Diennet is a cinematic genius and a lesser artist would buckle under the weight of the many hats he wore during production. He joined drama and comedy together perfectly without sacrificing either. The final result is almost flawless.

The few criticisms are almost too small to mention. A few of the lesser characters are stereotyped. There is one too many vomit scenes. This movie is strong on its' own and low brow vomit scenes are not necessary.

Diennet gives us the answer to the question he asked at the beginning of American Bistro. An adventure is a problem after problem. A true hero is the one who surmounts problem after problem.

In the end there can be no light without darkness.

The perfect allegory for this film is the same with restaurants. We usually visit those restaurants that are recommended to us or have good reviews, then you visit and discover the tragic reality. This film doesn't know what it wants to be. I know it's an independent film and it's not easy to make movies, but besides some problems with the script, there are unforgivable technical problems, mainly with the audio editing. The premise of the script is interesting but the acting seems close to that of a high school film. I wish all the luck to the authors and director but I didn't like the film very much.

Movie seems unfinished. Or there's a lot of scenes missing that were supposed to provide context. Idk. I won't comment on acting. I think a lot of things like could've been ignored if it had a decent plot. Base plot is good but I think they had too many ideas they tried to push in not enough time. Ended up with nothing resolved at the end

This is one of those..."things" that you can't even call it a film. Poorly acted, poorly directed, poorly edited, poorly filmed. Actors overact, underact. Jokes were bad. The sad moments were disgracefully acted. The score didn't match the scenes. The camera went too close or too far away, cutting the actors' head. Please I beg you, dont waste your time. You'd rather chew glass than watch this melange.