What Happens When A Rom-Com Has No Tone

French Lover somehow became a Netflix hit, and we walked in expecting a charming French rom-com with Omar Sy and walked out asking how so many scenes made it past the final draft. We’re not doing a polite “maybe it’s just not for us” review, either. We talk through the exact moments where the movie loses emotional logic, why the pacing feels like it’s on fast-forward, and how the tone swings so hard that arguments and romantic turns land like they were stitched together from different films.

We also dig into the celebrity culture angle the story wants to explore: an A-list actor surrounded by yes-men, obsessed with paparazzi, and weirdly detached from normal life, paired with a grounded woman dealing with divorce stress and a food truck dream. On paper, that contrast could be funny, sharp, and sweet. In practice, we think the script keeps manufacturing conflict, skipping the connective tissue that makes a relationship feel earned. We even get into how dubbing versus subtitles can change timing and meaning, which matters a lot for a French language Netflix original trying to sell comedy.

Then we pivot to the behind-the-scenes context of a directorial debut and why “tone control” might be the real missing ingredient, no matter how glossy the cinematography looks. And because we can’t end on pure chaos, we close with a recipe we actually endorse: crispy sweet potato cakes with feta cream and hot pepper honey, plus a shout to heyhoney.biz.

Listen, share this with your most honest movie friend, and leave a review with your take: is French Lover harmless escapism, or a romcom that forgets how humans act?

Transcript

Why This Pick Gets Roasted

SPEAKER_00 0:33

I have been looking forward to giving you grief about this movie for twenty-four hours.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Where did you find this? Actually, wait, wait, don't just hang on. I just read, as everybody knows, we do a notebook LM on the movies that we're gonna review. And I was aghast to find out that this was a hit. A hit for Netflix, or it was, what did they call it? This was something about hold on. I've got it, I've got it here. 2025 Netflix original film. Of course it was an original film by Netflix, of course. French Lover, a romantic comedy starring Omar Sai as a famous actor, and Sarah Gir Girardeau as a pragmatic waitress. Directed by Nina Reeves or Rives. Story follows an unlikely pair navigating a relationship complicated by the pressures of celebrity culture and personal baggage. Think Notting Hill but in reverse. While some critics have criticized the plot for being formulaic and derivative, that is an understatement like no other. The movie has been praised bullshit by audiences for its escapism charm and strong cap. That is nonsense. That is okay. Omar Sai, I like him. And usually we do not do a podcast where we tear up films. I try to find the positives and all of them, and the cosmetics of this film, the way it was, it was very much a movie in that everything was perfect. It was almost like if Twizzlers was a movie. It was like too sweet. Do you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 2:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

And Louisa might be a little quiet on this one because I told her I was gonna give her the th the throne, but I just I just had. I'm not attacking you. I know. I'm attacking this pick. Um in your defense, I'm sure you thought it was going to be the French version of You've Got Mail.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Or you're saying, but yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

French kiss with Meg Ryan and Kevin Klein. It wasn't.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

It was not.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Let's see. Overall, the collection of reviews, news articles, and credits offers a comprehensive look at the production and reception of this French language romantic dramedy. I don't even know if I'd call it dramatic. Sorry. Omar, if you're listening, I know you're not. I loved you in The Intouchables. I know you've done other great things, but no. This this is a a hard no. The hard no from both of us. And I'm not influencing her. I looked over at you at the at the close of this, didn't I, yesterday? And be like, what di Do I have to say anything?

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Nope.

Plot Setup And Meet Cute

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Or were you really impressed by this somehow? So go to it. This is your this is your show. Give us the breakdown of the story. So people at least know what the the movie's about. I'll keep my mouth shut.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Okay, and then I can give my conclusions.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yes, you can. Absolutely. So what I was just gonna say, it's not just my show. I know I do a lot of blabbing, but this was your pick, so it was. Give give give give us your thoughts and break down the movie.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

So first I think that this movie was recommended to me because I do like a romantic, I love a romantic comedy, and also because Omar Sai was in this movie, and we had recently watched the Intouchables, which, by the way, I think we already talked about on the podcast anyway, but um is a really great movie and everyone should see that movie. Um, someone at work was telling me that they recently watched it. Oh, Louisa, I meant to tell you that we watched this movie over the weekend called The Intouchables, and I was like, hold the phone. I was like, I love that movie. But anyway, so I think that that's why it showed up. And I also watched a trailer and I was like, okay, like a movie star actor, um, you know The premises the shorthand version is like falls in love with like an ordinary person or whatever, and they like really hit it off and they're good to go.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Definitely a trope.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

And I yes, definitely a trope. And I so I was like, Well, it's my pick. I want to watch this movie, I'm gonna watch this movie we're gonna watch this movie. So the movie starts out um that um in a restaurant, Omar Size, a fan or no movie doesn't start out that way. Well and it I mean, good enough.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

It gets there quick.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Um he's a well-known actor, and everybody knows who he is. Plenty of money eagles, plenty of money, plenty of everything. He's you know, he he lives like the quintessential movie star life. Wouldn't you say in France, thank you. And so he, you know, I think after a day of shooting or press whatever things, um junkets, he goes to the bar to you know, take a load off, have a drink, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

He's coming off a breakup too.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

And oh that's true, yeah. Very public. Yes, very public with uh with a anyway, um, another lady in the movies.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Um needs a sandwich.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Or two or three, maybe a burger could be there too. Some fries.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

I understand that this is a French thing, like the skinny, ultra skinny and in the Audrey Hepburn dress, both black, red, white, whatever, but good lord. Eat something. Oh please. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

You live in France.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Seriously, it's all carbs over there. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Um, so he orders a drink, and the waitress that brings it to him, they have like an argument because he thinks he's like all that and can be treated any way he wants. Or he should preferential treatment. Thank you. Um, and also like everybody should know who he is, and this lady's like, I'm just a waitress, I don't even like this job, but I have to have it.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

And um he's just talking shit, and then she's not having it. She's not having it.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Not at all. A bad situation. The owner comes over and is like, what's going on here? Do you know who this is? And he's apologizing to Omar's character, like, I'm so sorry, she's a new hire, blah blah blah. Anyway, she gets she says she's quitting and also gets fired on the spot and leaves the restaurant in a huff, and Omar Sai's character gets in his fancy car and you know picks her up and drives alongside her. I'm so sorry, and let me make it up to you. And she's like, No, I'm gonna take the bus home because that's what I always do. And he's like, I'm gonna take I'm gonna uh would you like me to drive you home? And she again is not having any of it, and so that all happens, and one thing leads to another, and uh is it okay to skip over all this?

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Well, yeah, I think what like this was sort of like laying the seeds for their personalities. Well, when it's a French movie and you watch subtitles versus dubbed.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Yeah.

Pacing Whiplash And Dub Problems

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Like subtitles the pacing might have been different. But the pacing, a lot of there was a lot of assumptive. It's almost like the plot moved. Like it was accelerated.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Like things happened very fast, and they didn't they weren't necessarily cohesive.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

They were definitely not.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Like, for example, and I'm again, sorry everybody, I'm trying to leave out filler words, but she threw a drink in the owner's face, told this guy to stuff it, and left, and he felt bad and drives up and tries to pick her up, and she's like, alright, fine. I'm like, what do you mean? You just like quit a job because of this jerk, you're gonna let him drive you home. And then he he tries to use his he uses his charm to charm her way into her apartment, but she's not really charmed by him, but he still gets in somehow. And then he just kind of assumes, oh, she's gonna screw me, so I'll just take my shirt off. And she's up to this point, she's disgusted with him, and then and then like on a dime, she's like, okay, we can fool around. I'm like, just like the the transitions, there was no they were they were hard, and they didn't make and I'm not gonna write it off just to like, do you know what I'm saying? When they when they started making out, like up to up to that moment, she's like, Well, you're a flake. I don't like you. And he's like, So, are you into it or what? She's like, Alright. I'm like, this this is almost laid out like a porno. Like in in the in the way that things kind of go from zero to a hundred. Then people they they change moods. And with the dubbing on top of it, the I th I feel like the land they've this happens with a lot of movies when they dub over the native language. Some words get changed and meanings get changed a little.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

So when you're watching it in English, you're like, this it the flow is off and the cohesion is off. Anyway, that was that was just when they first started to oh, and then the ex the ex her ex shows up. I I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take over. This is your thing, I'm sorry. No, it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

But like the ex shows up, and he and she becomes allied the actor in her house.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah, and she becomes diminutive or diminutive to him. And with any other guy, she's oh shut up, go, you know, kick rocks, whatever. Right. Uh like I didn't realize this, but I I don't think in the in the time that we have, I'm not gonna be able to pre- I I don't have enough time to like cut up this movie.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

You'll have to do a part two. No, like I don't really want to do anything.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

No. I think Okay, so Omar's agent finally figures out that he's with this girl, and she's trying to put him together with Oh my god, there was just so much of this movie that didn't mash up. Like, she puts Omar with this girl to create a news story that he has moved on from his ex.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

But they come try to fake a relationship.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Yeah, but they come in and they they're sitting in her office, she's like, I'm totally down to fuck you. And I'm like, that's how does that work?

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Yeah, that's that's not what they're looking for.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

And it's it's weird because they it's almost like the reality that they create is I don't want to say it it's absurd because it's I guess because it's just so far beyond the bounds of professionalism, like we have to convey to the media that we're in this thing, we're in this relationship, even though we're not, and her just her morals just don't exist, like at least in that in that moment. Do you know what I'm talking about? She's she's willing to just sleep with this person. Yeah, delicious. Oh, but it's it's not being filmed. It's just for it's just PR, it's just for perception. That's right. And she's like, well, you know, it's a job. I'm like, iff. Yeah. It just makes you a whore. I mean, like, and it's and it's treated as a comedic element, and it just doesn't feel fun. It doesn't feel comedic. It doesn't. So that was another one for me. When they're at that party and they end up, I'm like, I thought you were just supposed to be on the job. And then you ended up like hooking up.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

And then there's what's what's her name? The uh the the girl that he falls for? Lena?

SPEAKER_02 14:12

No, Lena's the actress.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Um not Sarah.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Her name is We gotta wait, there's the whole thing that you pulled up, the ecosystem map. What's her name?

unknown 14:25

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Oh, she's not in here. Um the sister. Estelle well. I can't believe she Estelle is the sister. Estelle's the sister, but I can't remember her name. Which is bothering me.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

Yeah, I couldn't tell you.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Um anyway. Abelle and Oh yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Abelle and here it is.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Sarah. Or no, Marion. Marion, oh sorry. It was a lot of it was a lot of dead air for one name, but Marion is. I guess she's This is the other part of the film that I didn't get, is that for the first, I'd say, quarter of it, she could care less, but she agrees. She's not doing this as a job. She spends time with him. I'm not exactly sure why, because she says she doesn't like him. Even though she admits to her family that she met this guy and her sister is gets all worked up about it. Her sister who's running her divorce gets all worked up about it and like makes it apparently totally clear in front of her husband that like I would absolutely leave you for him.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Many times she does that, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

And then when she finally meets him, she's like, Oh, this guy's nobody. Yeah. Um so there is a this is what I I'm having a little bit of a problem trying to delineate the issues because part of me wants to discuss how the movie was framed up. I I know I did it again. I'm this is your show.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

It's alright.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Keep going.

Fame Versus Reality Character Map

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Well, you can't stop mid-thought. Alright, alright, I won't. So there's a couple of there's kind of a protagonist foil to the relationship between these two. A Bell, played by Omar, so he's an A-list actor, but he has core trauma. He was raised by a single mother who died before he became famous, and his internal flaw is paranoia. So whenever he's out in the in the world, anyone who looks, he's he's sure that people are filming him and writing stories about him, and he can't, it makes it impossible for him to have a real relationship. He has anxiety and he's totally self-involved, and he's that's aided by being surrounded by yes men, his best friend and his agent, who give him whatever he wants. So he can't any, he can't ever do any, he can't be self-reflective. But he does provide financial and emotional push that Marion needs. Marion wants to launch her own food truck, but she doesn't have any money, and she's going through a divorce, and she's on the verge of homelessness because where she lives is owned by the ex-husband who is awful. That's another thing. At the end of the movie, when they go through the divorce, get the paper signed, he's just vicious. And then at the very end, he takes his ring off, he's like, I'm still in love with you. And again, this is like a total turned on a dime. It made, and the context for it made no sense. And up until this point, for two-thirds of the movie, this guy was a complete jerk. And the mention of him, you just thought, okay, this guy's terrible, we don't like him, we want him out of the picture. Right. And then later in the movie, a belle is babysitting her great Dane and loses the dog. And the first person that she calls is the ex. And I remember at this moment I sat up, I'm like, what? What there's nothing redeeming about this guy. Why would you call him? And this is why I feel like maybe some of the language was lost in the translation because it like there's all these little lines that don't necessarily connect. So, who else do we have in this movie? Lena is the ex. She's sort of the catalyst for Bell's initial jealousy and his public humil humiliations and being afraid of the paparazzi. Camille is his agent, and his buddy, who's as acts as a secondary handler, is Sammy. Let's see, who else do we have? And Antoine is the old boyfriend who we don't like. And our dog that we love is Claudine. What um okay, I'm gonna take a breath here before I get too worked up about this. Well, that was I'm taking a breath, so you may speak. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Well, I was just waiting for you to, you know, give me permission.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Okay, no, that you don't need permission from me. This is the two ways to do it. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

I'm sitting.

The House Leak And Helpless Celebrity

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Okay, so the scene where they go to his house. And I think I think they went a little over the top with showing how everything in his life is just managed by other people. Yeah. So they walk into his bathroom and like the the the tub has sprouted a leak, but like a massive leak from the top of the faucet, which makes no sense. And he doesn't know how to-yeah, so and he flips out, doesn't know how to handle it, so he starts taking a towel and hitting the the leak. Like that, like he he's just like frustrated at it and starts hitting. I'm like, that's not fixing anything. Why are you how this isn't a way to handle a problem?

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Well, no, it was just frustrat uh um I don't know what the adjective that I'm looking for is, but it just seemed I don't know, kind of random because apparently, and according to the timeline of the movie, he hadn't been home for a minute because when he realized that there was this leak in his bathroom, he said that the floor was all covered with water. And I don't know, but um, if the floor is all covered with water, then weren't you not home for a while? And then um I was going somewhere with this. Um I guess just like you said, he instead of it it just it didn't none of it made sense. And like you said, he started um hitting the bathtub with the towel, and the his like girlfriend that's with him is like you just have to find the water and turn the water off. And he's like, Well, I don't know how he's gonna be able to do that. He's like that.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

He's like that unplugged from how to manage normal life. Yeah, and this was kind of one of the the gravities to be honest, I wouldn't know how to do that either. Well, I mean, you just find where's the water coming from the water. Right, and then you sit valve, yeah. You just it's like any there's there's multiple valves. There's the one on your sink and then there's the one underneath.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

So there's a gravity weld diagram and what you generated here. So the stratosphere of fame compared with grounded reality. She lives in grounded real what's her name again?

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Marion.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Marion is grounded in reality, and Abelle is he lives in the clouds. So, but Abel elevates Marian out of her situational depression and she the he provides the catalyst for her to finally finalize this divorce from Anton and to get her she she can't drive and she has to get a driver's license before she gets this food truck business of hers off the ground. Now what's the word I want? Um comparatively, I guess. Marion acts as a as the gravity for a bell's life. She is the the the downward force, the gravity. She's more for probably half of the movie, she's more parental than romantic. Because he has such an inflated ego. And she's the only character who speaks to him without a filter.

SPEAKER_03 23:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

She talks to him like, I don't give a shit that you're a celebrity.

SPEAKER_03 23:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Like the things that like not everything is easy for it for everybody as it is for you.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Mm-hmm.

Manufactured Fights And Plot Holes

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Which those little elements were kind of nice to watch, but like some of the some of the fights they had. Fo the fight was a good example. It was a good example of how it's almost like a conflict was manufactured.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Yes, it was. She got a lot.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah, she gets upset with him because he's just finished a movie. And part of the actor's job, especially when you're filming a feature, part of the job is you've got to go to the rap party. That's where you say goodbye and thank everybody, and you've just gone through hell and and worked sleepless nights for many weeks making a movie, and this is part of the the the the gig. And she gets upset with him about this, and what they throw at each other as insults really kind of don't make sense.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

They don't. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

And as you're watching it, you're like, if you both just took a beat here, like she gives him a present of we're going on vacation together.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

We're gonna go hiking tomorrow in this other part of France that we have to fly to. He's like, Well, you gotta give me some heads up on this. The party is tomorrow. I can't just I'm still kind of working. And she gets worked up about it. Um and then part of me is like, wait a minute, I thought you were broke. How did you f I when we were watching this scene?

SPEAKER_02 25:11

I was that's exactly where I went. I was like, how the hell you planned a trip?

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Like, you don't have money to get a you're getting thrown out of your apartment.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

I was very confused.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Yeah, so like that's the thing. Like, you don't want to inject too much reality into a movie, but when you see so many, when you see a cascading list of like hiccups, it just makes it hard to take the movie seriously. There is a scene in the movie that Anton is filming, he gets he he has wanted to work with this particular director and he gets the part, but then he gets angry that he's he's like, I'm not the main character. I'm like, dude, that'd be it'd be like if I was cast in a a Martin Scorsese movie, but I wasn't given DiCaprio's role. I you're gonna bitch about it?

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Yeah. That doesn't make like just shouldn't you be happy that you're in the movie in the first place?

SPEAKER_00 26:14

He's like, I'm a supporting character. Like I'm gonna call I'm gonna call this guy up and tell him where he can stuff it. Like, that just seems so irrational. It it almost seems, in fact, in the way it was presented, it was presented in sort of a when it was dubbed, it was presented in sort of a comedic way, which really kind of took the air out of the argument. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, like I feel like you can hear yourself talk and you know how insane you sound.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

You sound, yep. I definitely that crossed my mind too. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

So it's all these little things that Louisa, I'm sorry, this was your pick. I it was just I can't shut up about it. Like every scene, I'm like, that's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Yeah. I was really disappointed with this movie.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

And here's where I feel bad, ladies and gentlemen, because I know that I could tell you wanted it to be something it wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

We should try like French Kiss.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Kevin Klein. And I haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

But Kevin Klein's in it, and what's her name from You've Got Mail? Meg Ryan's in it. I know it's some kind of romantic comedy, but I don't I don't I would be willing to bet you would like it more. Because I know what you were going. I know what you were going for. But as I'm reading the notes on this, with them comparing it to Notting Hill just backwards, I'm like, oh yeah, that yeah.

Notting Hill Comparison That Breaks

SPEAKER_02 27:59

That's another thing. So I really I mean, after okay, well, so during the research for our little chit chat, I was like, oh yeah, okay, I see how it's a backwards or reverse Notting Hill. I also love that movie. I mean, who doesn't love that movie? But at the same time, I was also like, that's not really fair to compare the two because they're so okay, great. It's not fair at all. Because they're not even in the same, I guess one would say, category. Um, like I said a few minutes ago, I was really disappointed in this movie because it wasn't I was thinking about this today. It wasn't even that I wanted more, or maybe I did. I just thought that there could be more, and then it just kept like all the examples that you just gave kept happening over and over and over, and none of it made any sense. And I was this is what I wanted to say about the connection with Nottinghill. I was really disappointed when so he made this um Abelle's character makes this movie that he was this the movie that he didn't really want to make, or was this the movie that he didn't have the supporting role for he got the supporting role, but he's in he's in it with his ex. He's in it with his ex, and he has to like you know, I don't know, fall in love with her and kiss her and all this kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

And you would think they would play that against they would play that against his relationship with what's her face? Marion. They never did. Yeah, they didn't. It was like her it was like anticlimate, it didn't even like impact her.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Yeah, not at all. Except for the last minute, like this the last scene that they were filming of the movie when she comes to set to say that she found oh that's why she wasn't there, to say that she found Claudine, her dog. And so that was supposed to be a happy thing. And here Omar's not even uh his character's not even in that same mindset because he's just happy that he just finished this movie, and not only that, he finished making out with his ex and he was very happy.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Well, yeah, here's the other thing. So he's in charge of the dog at this point in this movie. Oh gosh. So he's in his trailer and the dog's in there, and the agent comes in and somehow a fucking 120-pound door 120-pound great Dane, and nobody saw it. Give me a break. And then, instead, like he has to go shoot a scene, so he can't look for the dog. So, what's he do? He calls his girlfriend to say, Hey, I lost your dog. I can't do shit for you. Gotta go. Like it you remember we're watching this, I'm like, dude, what what are you doing? Don't call her now. Go do your scene and then send your people out to find the dog.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Yeah, if you're like this big hot actor who has all this staff and people to do things for you, like turn off your water because you don't know how to live in your own home. But so I was then I saw all that to say too, he ends up winning an award for this movie.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

And then leaves.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

He wins the French Oscar for this movie.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

What is it? The it's not the Caesar Award. I find it funny because they shoot this in this tiny theater for the Caesars or for the Caesars.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

I'm like, that looks like a local playhouse. Local playhouse. There is no way the Caesars are are done here. There's no way.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

It was so sad. It was literal. This is like it was like there's like It's the French Oscars.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Exactly. And there's like these are rows of like ten people. Like there's tops.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

And no one was dressed up like they were coming down a red carpet.

The Red Carpet Style Disaster

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Oh, oh, here's another one. You get us on a roll, we can't stop. You remember when they go to her big reveal where with it as them being an item?

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Oh god, how did we forget that was the worst? There were a lot of bad parts.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

They dress, so they take her because she's coming out to the like as being a Abel's partner.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

And they're gonna dress her up and put her on the red card.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

They give her a stylist, and this is like she's a regular girl. And she and the stylist is so full of crap. The stylist is like, looks at her and is like, oh, you're not like amazingly hot. I have nothing you can wear, so I'll put you in this giant diaper of a dress.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

Well, and honestly, I don't think it's not that she's not like ugly, she she's just like a nice looking person, and they just put this awful.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

What about that hair they did to her?

SPEAKER_02 32:43

I was just gonna say that disgusting hair dress. There was the dress, and then there was the hair.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

They made her look like a 1960s housewife and like blew her hair up with Aquanet, and like they turned her hair into like a pseudo-beehive that a woman in the 60s in the suburbs of Minnesota would have.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

And then her shirt and her skinny little legs and her sh the short length of the dress.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

This dress was a giant silver bow.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

And he's not exaggerating, it really was.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

And like I I'm I guess they were I don't know what they were going for. It's almost like the stylist had an ax to grind with the fact that she wasn't famous.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

They were going for let me get you on the worst dress list.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

Because it was awful. This poor girl, she didn't even sorry not to cut you off. This poor girl's poor girl, she didn't even look like she um she didn't look like herself anymore.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

There's no way and the thing is, any woman, self-respecting woman, in this situation would have been like, you are not putting me in front of a thousand cameras wearing that.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

There's no even like I, a straight white man, like when she came when before they got in the car, they sh showed you what she was wearing. I'm like, oh God, that looks awful.

Debut Director And Missing Tone

SPEAKER_03 34:06

Oh, it looks so bad. I forgot about how could I forget about that? That was like the one of the worst parts in this.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

I want to give you a lot of not very good parts. I want to give you this bit of behind the lens because I can only imagine if I put my heart and soul into building a project or making a movie. We're kind of we're kind of the worst people, you and I, because we're we're really poking holes in this. But Lisa Nina Reeves is the director. And, you know, look, I know this isn't your typical movie podcast, but she's a person like anybody else. And I'm this was her debut. And for us to come on and be like, oh, this movie's a piece of shit. Not very nice. It's not, but like Lisa, it sucked. But it's your first, it's your first feature. So not that you're ever gonna hear this. Doesn't matter what we say.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

And good job on you for giving you Omar. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Yeah, seriously. Like you that that's a total I haven't done that. That's a total win. But you gotta keep making movies, darling. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Because or have some control over how they're distributed because one calls these your primitive days, and your primitive days, they're your primitive days, so you gotta keep going.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Yeah, making her featured directorial debut. I didn't realize it was her first movie, but honestly, it kind of makes sense. The shots were all together, but that you know what it was? I don't think she has mastered tone yet. I think she has the I I understand that she had an idea for what she wanted this to be, but her control of emotion and tone are not there yet.

SPEAKER_03 35:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

And look, Lisa, it's all in fun. We're not we're just dunking on how the thing translated. But keep making movies, you'll be fine. Previously honed her style, her visual style and understanding of pacing as an assistant director in Netflix's massive hit loop in. Really? Well, you gotta keep making them, girl. And architects Hugo Galen was the executive co-writer, veteran high concept romance, love at second sight, and Sai's previous collaborator for Two as a Family. Uh Noan No me? Siglio? Sigalio. Comedian veteran no okay, so there were comedic elements in this movie, but it's almost like they were half-form jokes. Comedy veteran known for Netflix's Alpha Males and the Hookup Plan. RomCom Maestros. And we could talk about Sarah Girardot, who played uh Miriam, but I got well, let me see here. I've got a few minutes before I gotta get to the recipe. Contextualizes her dramatic Caesar Award winner for Bloody Milk. Have you even heard of that movie?

SPEAKER_03 37:17

Nope. But I saw that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Lead in an espionage thriller for the Bureau explains how her sharp, no-nonsense, dramatic chops provide the vital rhythmic friction needed for to ground size tornado-like energy. You know what's funny? Like just the AI-generated image, yeah, she could be a beauty, but they really ugged her up in this. Which was I mean, they just had she just had this perpetual, like, almost like a depressed look to her, you know? Like it, like, like it made her face hang. And there's pictures of her. She's a very pretty pretty lady, but I think she is a very pretty lady. There's uh stuff we're not gonna get into here about the composition by um Guillaume Faran and The Anthem Wild, which was an original track written by Feran with vocals by Adele. Or wait, excuse me, Adele Wismas? Is that is that Adele's last name? Is that a different Adele? That's not that Adele. Song serves as an emotional tentpole for the film's pivotal romantic montages, bridging the gap between Adele's highly produced world. You know what's funny about this? All the the stuff that leads up to like the architecture that they built around what made this movie, once it's assembled and you look at it as a whole, all of these components don't detri they're not the loudest speaker of the movie. The lack of tone is.

SPEAKER_03 39:02

Yeah. Yeah. That was a good um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

Like I'm sure the sound I don't even rem- I remember that there was music to it that kind of tied it all together, but it did not speak louder than the gaps in tone.

Sweet Potato Cakes Recipe Segment

SPEAKER_02 39:16

No, I have no idea. And honestly, I don't even really remember any um music driving or going along with the movie per se. The old the only thing that I remember regarding the music is that at the end of it, um, like when the credits started rolling, a lady started singing. And I was like, oh, this is a French movie. That's right. That's what I thought.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Alright, look, I gotta get into my uh I'm really hungry. Oh, I know. Thank God I brought you all that salmon, huh?

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Mm-hmm. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

Yep. Uh what do we got here? I gotta find you the that's not what I wanted to have. I gotta find my where are they? I have a recipe. It's good. You're gonna like it. It's got sweet taters in it.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

Okay. Oh, God, this looks delicious. Crispy sweet potato cakes with feta cream and they call it sriracha honey, but again, the this must be my third or fourth hot pepper honey recipe. Again, as always, this podcast and these recipes are brought to you by heyhoney.biz. Check me out online, order whatever you want, but if you're one of our many listeners in Vietnam, I can't send it to you. Let's see. So, sweet potato cakes, I got four minutes here. So there's a couple of different components that I'm gonna give you ingredients on. Sweet potato cakes, you're gonna use two cups of mashed sweet potatoes, one egg, a quarter cup of flour, two tablespoons of olive oil, one half teaspoon of salt, and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. I would up the black pepper if I were you. For the feta cream, half a cup of feta cheese, two tablespoons of Greek yogurt, a tablespoon of olive oil, and a tablespoon of lemon juice. It gives you a recipe for sriracha honey. Fuck that, we're not doing that, we're just using mine. Hey honey dot biz for the garnish, fresh parsley, and chili flakes. Here's the directions. In a bowl, you're gonna mix mashed sweet potato, egg, flour, salt, black pepper, form into small cakes, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the cakes for three to four minutes, per side until golden brown, so you're making pancakes in a sense. And then in a bowl, you're gonna mix feta, Greek yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice until smooth. In a small bowl, you have to do that. That's the making the honey. I do that. Spread the feta cream onto a plate, place a sweet potato cake on top of it, and then just keep doing that. On top of that cake, you're gonna put more of the cream, stack another one, more cream, stack another um sweet potato cake, and then cover it with hot pepper honey, and then chow down. I gotta figure out a way outside of YouTube to put these pictures up. Well, I g when you're listening for the podcast, it's just you're not gonna see any visuals, but it looks delicious. Look at that. Yes. I'm not doing it today. Not today, you gotta wait. Do we miss anything?

SPEAKER_03 42:43

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

We didn't.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

If you um I mean, I'm not telling you not to watch it, but if you value my opinion at all, I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if I'm not I'm not gonna try and sway opinion. That's how I felt about the movie. If you are fiending for a romance, check it out.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

I mean, I think, like, I really I claim to really love the movies, and I would say, if you like, for me, I I It didn't feel like a theatrical experience. It did not. And I would have a hard, a really hard time. I'd be like embarrassed to say to someone, like, I went to go see this movie and I didn't keep on watching, I I left. Um, but if you started this movie and you were like, Yeah, no, I listened to their podcast review, and then I started to watch it, and I was like, Nope, I still am not. I would not blame you for turning it off.

Final Verdict And Listener Mail Ask

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Yeah, I would and it would be alright. If anybody's seen it or has listened to this and then watched it, feel free to write in. We still haven't received fan mail yet. I'd love to get comments. Uh if they're negative about us, I'm just not gonna read them because I'm an egomaniac. We have anything else?

SPEAKER_02 43:56

I think that's it.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Alright, I gotta eat. I'm hungry.

SPEAKER_02 43:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:59

Hugs and kisses.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

Thanks.