Second round: two Dupontels for the price of one (review)

Dupontel takes the pulse of Macron's France and BFM TV in a political fable that does not find the cartoon virtuosity of Adieu les cons.

After the triumph ofGoodbye idiotswhich marked for him a form of artistic achievement, Albert Dupontel does not change gear or register. Last October, he returned with a new fast-paced and sentimental fable, which will be broadcast this evening on Canal +.

Goodbye idiots: Dupontel at the top (Review)

Second Round, it is a freewheeling journey through the depressed and eco-anxious France of the 2020s. The tone this time is even more overtly political than in the previous film, since it is about a presidential candidate (Dupontel himself), who hides explosive secrets under his guise as a Macron-style robotic banker – secrets that the journalist from a 24-hour news channel (Cécile de France) investigates. The plot (which we cannot overly deflower) resembles a mix between two political fables from the end of the seventies, The Face of the Other by Pierre Tchernia and Welcome Mister Chance by Hal Ashby.

Armed with these influences, both poetic and disconcerting, Dupontel intends to oppose his dreamy idealism to the cynicism of the time. But his utopian speech is lost in the twists and turns of a story that is less incredible than laborious. During the film, the actor-director finds himself facing his own image, split (we won't say how or why), as if he were torn between his self. “institutional” (the one who wins Caesars and makes millions of admissions) and the rebellious anar that he intends to remain despite everything. This is the secret side of the film, the expression of a fundamental concern. An interesting dilemma, but expressed in a muddled form. Although we get two Dupontels for the price of one, the film is only half satisfactory.

Nicolas Marié – Goodbye idiots: “Albert is picky, but his demands have a purpose”