Rien à foutre

The lead actor played the role very well, but I didn't feel like the film was really going anywhere.

I cycle of scenes from planes, night clubs, hanging around the hotel/house.

It showed how empty and meaningless her life is. And highlighted how grim work can be at times.

Every soul carries its share of baggage, and in Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre's evocative drama 'Zero Fucks Given', this universal truth is explored with a potent blend of literal and metaphorical resonance.

From the outset, viewers are confronted with a vivid tableau of desperation and anxiety as we witness a woman, visibly on the brink, grappling to fit her baggage into the rigid compartments of travel. This struggle serves as a poignant allegory for the protagonist Cassandre's emotional journey, portrayed with remarkable depth by the talented Adele Exarchopolous. As the narrative unfolds, we delve into a trove of accumulated sorrow borne out of loss and unprocessed grief. The void left by her mother's passing haunts not only Cassandre but also her father and sister, each ensnared in their private battle with the remnants of despair.

Cassandre's instinct is to flee from her torment, hoping to find solace in new horizons. Yet, the film eloquently underscores a stark reality: no matter how far you fly, the shadows of your past will tail closely behind. No destination exotic enough, no drug potent enough, and no career enticing enough can mask the wounds etched deep within. Cassandre's futile attempt at evasion reflects a melancholy truth; the specters of the past are loyal companions on the journey of life.

As the narrative reaches its crescendo, 'Zero Fucks Given' nudges its protagonist and the audience towards an inescapable realization: healing is a voyage inward. Amid the gentle symbolism of the roundabout, where Cassandre finds herself towards the end of the film, lies a profound message. Just as life's relentless currents swirl around, individuals like Cassandre find themselves anchored amidst its flow by their unaddressed burdens.

In the emotionally charged final act, we witness Cassandre mustering the courage to face the shadows of her past, a crucial step that hints at the dawn of acceptance. As she untangles the knots of her grief, there's a subtle uplift in the narrative tone, leaving both Cassandre and the audience with a budding hope for the days to come. This tender note of optimism amidst a journey laden with emotional tumult encapsulates the essence of 'Zero Fucks Given', offering a gentle nudge towards the liberating path of self-confrontation and healing. Through Cassandre's evolving lens, we are reminded that facing our internal tumult is the first step towards unfurling a future free from the anchor of unresolved sorrow.

This film about a young woman without any particular ambition working as a flight attendant was extremely real. It felt like a secret camera was just recording a month in the life of a few people working for the fictional Wing discount airline. The acting was terrific, and made the story feel completely believable.

I mostly enjoyed the aspects of the film that related to labor relations at her airline: how they pushed the cabin crew to be salespeople, underpaid them, & treated them like crap. There is a chance, here, for our main character to get involved with this storyline when she meets a picket line of her co-workers, but she waves off the union effort to improve conditions with a nihilistic, "nothing matters, nothing changes".

Our main character also has a chance to express something, to *do* something interesting around the death of her mother. But she doesn't. She keeps her pain bundled inside, as many of us do in the real world, and just carries on.

This character's life is boring because SHE is boring and lacks any compelling motivation. The film successfully illustrates that to the audience.

But being 100% "true-to-life" is NOT entertaining, unless the life in question is entertaining. There are millions of people in the world living non-ambitious lives worth repetitive jobs...and I don't want to watch a long-form film about each of them.

In this case, the writers and directors seem to have gone out of their way to illustrate how monotone this woman's life was. It is a symphony concert written with one note played over and over. It was "aggressively mundane", which is artistic, but *still* boring.

I'm really not sure why IMDB categorises this as both a drama and a "comedy". There are precious few laughs here.

Instead, we see the relentless grind of a low-end job in a budget airline, with sales targets and ever-present management oversight - not to mention the usual challenges of dealing with the passengers. There are "R&R" interludes of course but even some of these look pretty joyless, as will resonate with any business traveller who has been stuck for a few hours in a supposedly "exotic" location with nothing much to do. Maybe it's all scripted, but many of the rambling interchanges here sound amateurish and improvised - perhaps deliberately to emphasise the feeling?

Adele fortunately is charismatic enough to carry pretty much the whole film single-handedly, although some of the supporting players are not too bad either, and the exploration of the home life from which she has run away adds to the overall picture of aimlessness.

The ending is nicely balanced, I think, and can be read either way ... is she on the verge of achieving a dream, or just switching one kind of drifting for another? Sartre would empathise, I feel.

Worth a look.

Wow, what a fantastic, natural film of everyday life. It has the feel of a Belgium Mike Leigh film with the acting on the same par, and I imagine, a similar improvisation technique. The lead actor, who i have since seen was the youngest recipient of the Palme D'or, was amazing and gave such an outstanding performance. But, pretty much everyone was so believable it had an almost documentary feel. I'd ignore the ludicrous 1/10 marks as there are people who obviously have an ulterior motive. Maybe Michael O'Leary thought it was a little too close for comfort.