Movie Reviews
French Girl (2024) – Movie Review
French Girl, 2024.
Written and Directed by James A. Woods and Nicholas Wright.
Starring Zach Braff, Evelyne Brochu, Vanessa Hudgens, Antoine Olivier Pilon, Charlotte Aubin, Luc Picard, Alex Woods, Catherine De Sève, Isabelle Vincent, Muriel Dutil, Luc-Martial Dagenais, and Melia Charlotte Cressaty.
SYNOPSIS:
Follows Gordon Kinski, a high school teacher from Brooklyn, who goes with his girlfriend and chef Sophie Tremblay to her hometown of Quebec City where she is testing for the Michelin 3-star restaurant of super-chef Ruby Collins.
The timing and specificity required to make jokes land, especially slapstick humor, aren’t easy, as French Girl newcomer writing/directing team James A. Woods and Nicholas Wright have discovered here. One can see the potential in giving the tried-and-true meet-the-parents narrative a cultural kick by bringing a Brooklyn resident to Québec city and using French differences as a source for comedy, but the script somewhat stops doing that and instead relies on cheap gags that would be shocking and funny if there was more skill leading up to the punchline.
Unfortunately, listening to Zach Braff’s Shakespeare-loving middle school English teacher, Gordon Kinski, recite the insanity around him is usually funnier than what happens (he comments on getting roped into an underground mixed martial arts family fight club, a funny line referring to a letdown sequence.) The ensemble has the delivery down, but the slapstick shenanigans feel forced. They sometimes get crude and forget that a joke is funnier if the characters are treated like actual people and not just punching bags.
Some of the material here also feels dated, following around a well-meaning Gordon who genuinely wants to make a positive impression on his chef girlfriend Sophie Tremblay’s (Evelyne Brochu) family – he does not, unknowingly consuming a Quaalude on the plane mistakenly given to him over medication to calm anxiety by his kooky novelist father who desperately wants his son to bring him back an immigration passport; it’s a hilarious small turn from William Fichtner – but spend most of the film nervously jealous that the wealthy reality TV woman letting Sophie try out for an executive position at her new restaurant, Ruby (Vanessa Hudgens), is also her former lover.
As nothing goes right throughout this quasi-vacation, Gordon increasingly becomes concerned that the more adventurous, ambitious, and exciting Ruby is scheming to steal Sophie back from his uneventful but loving self. The Frenchness in this film seems to have started and stopped with a few jokes about sexual freeness and a lesbian former flame.
Later on, there is a segment involving duck hunting, painting the Canadian-French as gun-crazy as Americans, so perhaps the point is also suggesting that the cultures are also similar in many ways. Aside from a brilliant joke that sees Gordon showing Sophie’s brother Jean-Claude Van Damme movies to help him learn English to pass an exam to become a cop, there isn’t too much humor that feels inspired by French culture.
The jokes tend to end up fairly broad and unamusing. Gordon has to help butcher a baby lamb in preparation for dinner, and the crazy old dementia-ridden matriarch gets confused and steals the wedding ring he plans to propose to Sophie with, meaning that he spends a good portion of the movie creeping the family out when searching for isolated moments to be with her and pull the ring off her finger, and he doesn’t know how to drive a stick shift. Even worse, French Girls vindicates his childish whining and concerns over his girlfriend spending time with another woman. Some jokes are frustratingly obvious (you know what will happen as soon as Gordon picks up a gun, based on a mildly funny running gag prior.)
Again, Zach Braff is doing his best to sell everything that happens as wild, out-of-control shenanigans that need to be seen to be believed, but the seeing part leaves something funny to be desired. French Girl simply isn’t fresh, funny, or French enough to escape the outdated trappings of the meet-the-parents formula.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
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Movie Reviews
I Know Exactly How You Die – Review | Indie Slasher | Heaven of Horror
Watch I Know Exactly How I Die on VOD
The director of I Know Exactly How I Die is Alexandra Spieth, who ensures a tight pace and some gorgeous shots. She previously directed Stag and created and starred in the web-series [Blank] My Life. The screenplay comes from Mike Corey, and I do really like the plot and evolution of this story.
As already mentioned, the star Rushabh Patel is the executive producer. As a result, this movie is billed as “Rushabh Patel’s I Know Exactly How I Die“, which I am not a fan of. Unless Rushabh Patel is famous in ways I am not familiar with – nor is IMDb, as this is his first and so far only credit there.
This is like people wondering if Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is connected to Stranger Things, because the media keeps referring to it as a new show from The Duffer Brothers. Sure, they produced it, but Haley Z. Boston created the original story and wrote the screenplay. And she’s not even a newcomer.
Okay, rant over, but I just don’t understand the marketing and press decisions of it all.
Anyway, as already mentioned, the practical effects in I Know Exactly How I Die are gorgeous. Any slasher fan should enjoy the concept of the plot as well as those amazing practical effects. And yet, you will have to endure a little terrible CGI, but this is an indie production, so budget restraints come into play. Of course, so does choosing the best talent, and that did not happen for CGI here!
I Know Exactly How You Die is out on VOD from April 7, 2026. You can rent it on Digital HD from your preferred platform, including Prime Video and Fandango at Home. The film will also be available on DVD.
Movie Reviews
‘Super Mario’ fans ignore weak reviews and send sequel to $372.5 million global box office debut, biggest opening of the year for a studio film | Fortune
Mixed reviews didn’t dissuade mass audiences from buying tickets to the “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which scored the biggest opening of the year for a Hollywood movie. The Illumination and Nintendo co-production earned $130.9 million over the weekend and a massive $190.1 million in its first five days in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Universal Pictures released the sequel globally on Wednesday, capitalizing on kids’ spring break vacations in the week leading up to the Easter holiday. With an estimated $182.4 million from 80 overseas markets, the film is looking at an astronomical $372.5 million debut — the latest hit for the PG rating. Mexico is leading the international bunch with $29.1 million from 5,136 screens, followed by the U.K. and Ireland with $19.7 million.
The animated sequel, Illumination CEO Christopher Meledandri’s 16th movie in 16 years, is the industry’s biggest debut since “Avatar: Fire and Ash” launched over Christmas. The Chinese movie “Pegasus 3,” which was not a Motion Picture Association release, has the slight edge for the 2026 global record, however.
It’s also a dip from the first film, which opened to $204 million domestically during the same five-day time frame in 2023 ($147 of that was from Friday, Saturday and Sunday). “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” went on to be the second biggest movie of 2023, with over $1.3 billion in box office receipts.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which features returning voice actors Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy and Charlie Day, had a massive footprint in the U.S. and Canada, where it played in 4,252 theaters, including 421 IMAX and 1,345 premium large format screens. It made $15 million from the IMAX screens alone.
“It’s exactly the kind of broad, crowd-pleasing release that brings people into theatres,” AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron said in a statement.
It also cost around $110 million to make, not including marketing and promotion expenses. But it arrived on a wave of less-than-stellar reviews. Its Rotten Tomatoes score is currently sitting at a lousy 40%. Ticket buyers were more enthusiastic, however.
The family audience gave the movie five out of five stars according to PostTrak exit polls, while general audiences gave it four stars and an A- on CinemsScore. Audiences skewed male (61%) overall, although when it came to families attending there were slightly more moms (52%) than dads.
“These kind of audience reaction scores just point to a ridiculously strong run, not only throughout the spring, but likely into the summer as well,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” will open in Japan later this month.
Last year, the first weekend in April hosted the launch of another video game blockbuster, “A Minecraft Movie,” which had a bigger three-day debut ($162.8 million) but didn’t have a “Project Hail Mary” in a strong second place, meaning the weekend overall is still up around 5%.
As expected, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” ended the two-week reignof the Ryan Gosling-led sci-fi hit “Project Hail Mary,” which landed in second its third weekend in theaters where it added $30.7 million, bringing its running domestic total to $217.2 million. Worldwide, it’s made $420.7 million to date.
Third place went to A24’s provocative new movie “The Drama,” starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, which made an estimated $14.4 million from 3,087 theaters. The film’s stars have been on a massive and charming press blitz to promote their R-rated movie about a engaged couple grappling with an unnerving revelation, which cost a reported $28 million to produce. The reveal has drummed up a fair amount of cultural discourse. While reviews have been more positive than not (82% on Rotten Tomatoes), it got a less promising B CinemaScore.
“Hoppers” and “Reminders of Him” rounded out the top five. And the box office outlook looks bright overall, up around 30% from last year.
“There’s no better opening act for a great summer than a huge month of April powered by a mega blockbuster like the ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,’” said Paul Dergarabedian, comscore’s head of marketplace trends.
Top 10 movies by domestic box office
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
1.“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” $130.9 million.
2.“Project Hail Mary,” $30.7 million.
3.“The Drama,” $14.4 million.
4.“Hoppers,” $5.8 million.
5.“Reminders of Him,” $2.2 million.
6.“A Great Awakening,” $2.1 million.
7.“They Will Kill You,” $1.9 million.
8.“Dhurandhar The Revenge,” $1.9 million.
9.“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” $1.8 million.
10.“Scream 7,” 915,000.
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