Paris, 13th District (2021)

Directed by Jacques Audiard. Starring Lucie Zhang, Makita Samba, Noémie Merlant, Jehnny Beth, Camille Léon-Fucien. [R]

Change of pace for director Audiard (Dheepan, A Prophet, the English-language The Sisters Brothers, etc.) has a playful, dream-like exuberance, but offers few substantial variations to its familiar form. Twenty-something underachiever Zhang needs a roommate, sleeps with him (Samba) before the proverbial ink is dry, and feels unfulfilled by their no-strings-attachment arrangement (she thinks she might love him). He’s interested in a co-worker (Samba), who only comes to work for his company because she was harassed into dropping out of college after being mistaken for a popular camgirl (Beth) with whom she eventually comes into (virtual) contact. Sex-forward but romantically-backward; full of misunderstandings, angst, horniness, contrived crossed-paths “randomness”, casual sex (that’s never equally casual in the mindsets of each mattress occupant)…and no character to really care about, unless one finds self-absorbed and passive-aggressive to be appealing traits. If we were meant to merely study or harshly judge this bunch, it might have been an unqualified success, but the resolution leaves no doubt a happy ending was always the goal. Audiard throws in a few stylized visual gimmicks, but they’re infrequent enough to simply distract from Paul Guilhaume’s woozy, subjective camerawork, working almost exclusively in lovely black & white. Original French title: Les Olympiades, Paris 13e.

56/100