Always Good Movies

Direction: Sébastien Marnier
Country: France

The Origin of Evil is a petty comedic thriller with an ostentatious profusion of pretenses. Following Faultless (2016) and School’s Out (2018), writer-director Sébastien Marnier delivers another story centered on class defectors that lures one in at an early stage, keeping the audience on edge with a tight mysterious grasp until everything is suddenly revealed. Afterward, it falls into pure thriller routine with no smarts.

Equipped with a great cast but in need of better editing, the film follows Nathalie (Laure Calamy), a modest young woman who decides to meet her estranged, wealthy father (Jacques Weber) for the first time. Battling illness, this man lives controlled by his wife (Dominique Blanc), a compulsive consumerist; his arrogant daughter (Doria Tillier), who took over his businesses; and a constantly vigilant housekeeper (Véronique Ruggia). Although highly caricatured, not a single character is likable.

Affected by the imposter syndrome, this is the kind of film where you cannot find a trace of honesty, and you know it beforehand. The director employs a bunch of deceits as narrative propellers, but the film, paralyzed by aloofness, runs out of ideas fairly quickly, leaving us with a general feeling that not everything is quite clicking the way it could have. I found myself struggling to find the laughs while observing avid women battling one another fiercely for dominance and acceptance.

Direction: Eric Gravel
Country: France

French writer-director Eric Gravel (Crash Test Aglaé, 2017) deserves all the praise he gets for Full Time, an excellent sophomore feature and sharp social observation of extraordinary impact. Strong in its commitment, the film also owes a lot to Laure Calamy (Only the Animals, 2019; My Donkey, My Lover & I, 2020), whose exceptional performance clarifies the reality of Julie, a single mother who struggles to raise her two children in the countryside while working in a demanding five-star Parisian hotel.

The days start very early for Julie, who risks everything to change her life. While managing her limited time to go to a job interview at a distinguished market research company, she meets with considerable difficulties: a general strike, a complaining nanny, an inflexible supervisor, and an irresponsible ex-husband that leaves her financially tied up. Trapped in a hectic lifestyle, it’s the people and the city itself that don’t let her breathe. But as a strong and determined fighter, she admirably pushes back against adversity. And that’s the richness of a film that many people will be able to relate to.

Gravel’s realism finds the right pacing, and the taut script, although precise and controlled, is implemented with dynamic camera movements and an efficient editing that help extract tension from the real-world scenes. Designed to provoke anxiety, Full Time is more gripping than most of the recent thrillers I’ve seen lately. And how could one not admire a woman who, constantly on the edge, refuses to collapse and keeps fighting for a better tomorrow?