Lowkey was giving Mrs Doubtfire 💀

If the premise of this film seemed like a stretch, unfortunately it does feel messy at some points - but the total commitment that Audiard has to his characters cuts through the noise. Glad to see him finally recognised internationally, even if it’s not for one of his best films.

Éric Rohmer transforms a dull, mundane afternoon into a grand mystery. People-watching at its most transfixing.

Nothing beats a shark movie, however lots of things beat an aesthetically barren Xavier Gens film.

My main take away from this is that no matter where in the world you are from, American food will give you one hell of a culture shock.

Batshit crazy film. Kiyoshi Kurosawa knows how to turn normal domestic life into ambient dread. He pulled horror out of thin air in Cure and Pulse, and again this year with Chime.

I love how sadistic and ruthless he can be. A master filmmaker on a victory lap this year.

Furiosa réalisé par Coralie Fargeat avec le soutien de Lara Croft.

A big winner at the 2001 César Awards, Dominik Moll's With a Friend like Harry plays out like a Chabrolian thriller. Laurent Lucas and Sergi López give great performances that elevate this from the trashy, airport paperback vibe of the screenplay.

It reminded me of both Jane Campion's In the Cut - if French language, and pre-9/11 - and Cédric Kahn's Red Lights, which shares a co-writer with this film, and further explores the tone of the opening scene.

A tale as old as time. At the turn of the century Laurent Cantet’s Human Resources examines the shattering of its young, idealistic protagonist, through the cutthroat world of modern business.

It’s not presented with the high stakes of the Dardenne brothers, nor the glacially paced, cold distance of Nicolas Klotz’s comparative Heartbeat Detector. Cantet rather relies on the human drama of familial loyalties against corporate progression. Even if that tension is mined quite quickly, the emotional that follows warrants a shifting narrative.

A week of homosexual deviancy in the French countryside would cure me.

The perils of the gig economy are explored in this masterful, taut Paris-set drama. It evokes the frenzy of the commute in Full Time, the pressures of globalisation in Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect… and a variety of European class dramatists, namely the Dardenne brothers.

We follow the titular Souleymane’s struggles in the days leading up to his asylum interview, as he is faced with homelessness and his dangerous, rushed shifts renting a delivery driver’s account.

Abou Sangare transcends as Souleymane in his first film role.

Laure Calamy and her wardrobe are great. Iris and the Men handles its subject with much more grace and maturity than I expected.

Yet this culminates in the most sauceless musical sequence I’ve ever seen put to film. Like, what do you mean it’s raining men? This looks like a rejected Toyota ad.

Ozon’s takedown of the bourgeoisie imagines La Cérémonie as a comedy. Goes incredibly hard on rewatch. Excellent restoration by Altered Innocence.