Film Review
Having scripted a number of fairly mediocre comedies, including David
Charhon's
Cyprien (2009),
Romain Lévy makes a promising directorial debut with this feisty
feel-good collation of road movie and buddy movie, which stands a good
chance of being one of the most memorable mainstream French comedies of
2012. Whilst the influences are all too easily spotted -
from Richard Curtis's
The Boat
That Rocked (2009) to Cameron Crowe's
Almost Famous (2000) - and the
clichés are as bountiful as slugs on a wet spring day, the film
manages to get by on the sheer energy and enthusiasm that Lévy
and his likeable band of lead actors bring to it. Lévy has
clearly set his sights on being France's answer to Judd Apatow, and
judging by his first enjoyable romp, he stands a pretty good chance of
realising that ambition.
Lévy has made no secret of the fact that
Radiostars is an autobiographical
piece, which draws on his own experiences of working for a small radio
station in the company of Mathieu Oullion and Manu Payet, who
became firm friends of his and contribute to the film as screenwriter
and actor respectively. Because of this, the film not
only roars with zest and colour, it is also startlingly true to life, and this
helps to make up for its many technical and scripted
shortcomings. The characters may not be as well developed as they
might have been had a little more care been lavished on the script, but
they are sympathetically played and easy to engage with. Clovis
Cornillac is particularly hilarious as a self-loving microphone hogger
who is so enamoured of the sound of his own voice you wonder how he can
ever bear to shut his mouth (how many radio presenters does that remind
you of?).
Radiostars is
definitely not the most sophisticated of French comedies, and it makes
no attempt to disguise the fact that it is targeted at the home youth
market, but if zany, verbose, pop-themed humour is your thing it is
definitely on the right wavelength.
© James Travers 2012
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
After a series of emotional and professional setbacks in New York,
aspiring comic Ben returns to Paris, where he meets Alex, a star
presenter on a radio breakfast show. Ben makes such an impression
on Alex and his cohorts, Cyril and Arnold, that he is soon hired to
write material for them. But no sooner has Ben managed to get his
feet back on the ground than disaster strikes: for some reason the
radio show's audience figures have taken a nosedive. To win back
their audience, the four friends set out on a radiophonic road trip
that will shatter their certainties about themselves...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.