C'est quoi cette famille?! (2016)
Directed by Gabriel Julien-Laferrière

Film Review

For his third feature after Neuilly sa mère (2009) and SMS (2014) director Gabriel Julien-Laferriere seizes the mood of the moment with this ebullient comedy centred around the composite family, an arrangement that is sadly becoming the norm in an era where marriage and longterm relationships are now a rarity.  C'est quoi cette famille?! has a great deal of fun with the now well-worn idea of reversing adult-child roles but it struggles to make an original statement of its own.  It is depressingly samey, caricatured, clichéd and repetitive, so a reasonably good premise is wasted on a second-rate script that serves up mostly puerile gags that are more likely to appeal to young children than grown adults.

Judging from his work to date, Julien-Laferriere seems to be better suited for the small screen than the big screen, and indeed he has divided his time fairly evenly been cinema and television (working on TV popular shows such as Fais pas ci, fais pas ça).  C'est quoi cette famille?! has the unmistakable small-scale TV movie-feel to it that prevents it from making it an effective piece of cinema entertainment.  A respectable cast of established adult actors (including Julie Gayet, Julie Depardieu and Lucien Jean-Baptiste) are put to shame by the younger cast members, who manage to appear far more convincing and arouse far more sympathy.  Although mildly entertaining, C'est quoi cette famille?! doesn't quite gel - it suffers badly from a lack of original ideas, some pretty uninspired direction and an ending that feels horribly forced.

Film Synopsis

Bastien is a 13-year-old boy who, thanks to his mother's inability to settle down with one man, finds himself with eight parents and six siblings.  As a result, Bastien and his many brothers and sisters are constantly being shuffled between their parents' various households, an arrangement they have begun to resent  An opportunity for the children to get their own back on their selfish parents presents itself when Bastien's eccentric grandmother Aurore goes off on holiday, leaving her apartment empty for a few weeks.  The unhappy brood claim possession of the flat and refuse to be moved.  If their parents want to see them they can visit if they wish - but at their own risk...