A film about fathers and daughters, men and monsters, mountains of food and clogged toilets, Quentin Dupieux’s farcical pseudo body horror “Full Phil” is the type of movie you’ll either find yourself eating up every minute of or rejecting entirely.
This will come as no surprise to those who’ve seen Dupieux’s previous work, which includes wonderfully weird genre riffs such as “Rubber,” “Deerskin,” and “Mandibles,” as he’s not one who has ever really cared all that much about the expectations placed upon him or worried about playing to broader audiences. “Full Phil” is far from his best work, often feeling slightly overstretched and repetitive while also remaining oddly straight-faced for large stretches. It’s more a ho-hum chuckler than it is a laugh-a-minute comedy, with the glorious genre riffing taking a backseat to more banal family discord.
However, once you make your way through some of the stilted main courses, there’s still something to chew. “Full Phil” is far more interesting and weird than his last film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, the sporadically amusing yet ultimately empty 2024 opener “The Second Act,” while still never fully reaching the comic heights and endearingly juvenile lows of his best work.
The film centers on a father, Philip Doom (Woody Harrelson), and a daughter, Madeleine Doom (Kristen Stewart), whose trip to Paris becomes defined by bickering and the latter eating everything in sight, a bit that Dupieux milks for all that is worth. Indeed, this becomes the heart of the experience, with Stewart proving to be a gloriously game lead, making a meal out of every moment she gets. She not only understands the assignment, but makes it something more meaty in her sticky hands.
At the same time, Madeleine is watching a bizarre black-and-white movie that centers on two scientists, played by the always delightful duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, who are researching a monster that eats people’s heads. Playing like the “Creature of the Black Lagoon” meets “Frankenstein” with Heidecker and Wareheim delivering some of the most ridiculous line readings you’ll ever hear, it’s also the part of the film that consistently feels the most fun. When they’re gone, you miss them and wish there was an entire movie that was just them operating in this comic register.
The rest of the experience can be a little stiff, playing many of the same notes surrounding Philip’s neurotic anxieties and fears, with Harrelson struggling to bring much variety to the part. Once you get what he’s doing, that’s pretty much all there is to it as the actor leans on the same befuddled tone to diminishing returns. But Stewart, who previously made last year’s all-time great feature debut “The Chronology of Water,” is in full sicko mode, chewing through not just the scenery, but plate after plate of food.
Her voracious appetite, while seemingly having no impact on her, begin to take a toll on her father. At the same time, a protest over something is happening in the city, yet neither of the characters, despite Philip briefly asking about the why of it all, really cares all that much about what is going on outside of their own small world. And “Full Phil” is a rather small film, playing out within mostly confined spaces with dialogue that seems to loop back on itself. It doesn’t go for conventional jokes, with the primary setup and payoff playing out over a brisk yet also bloated 78-minute runtime. You’re continually waiting for the moment where it will take a bigger leap, though this only really comes in the final moments, with the buildup often proving hit-and-miss.
The bits with Heidecker and Wareheim in the film-within-the-film are where it largely hits, though they fades away for a large stretch when the characters in the “real” world go out to dinner. They eventually make a triumphant return, complete with an absurdist flashback to end all flashbacks, but only as a quick desert treat after a more middling main course.
The film gestures towards more complex and thorny ideas about the resentment a parent can hold against their child for taking so much from them, though it never really sinks its teeth into them. The joke about the protests just becoming background noise to these American tourist is potentially pointed, but it doesn’t feel as though Dupieux himself is taking any of this too seriously.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that he mostly just wanted to see Stewart’s character eating in pretty much every scene, then proceeded to work backwards from there. While you have to respect how fully Dupieux and Stewart commit to the bit, it isn’t appetizing enough to sustain an entire film.
Dupieux occasionally displays a bitter mean streak via some withering lines, but none of it is audacious enough. Still, the explosive payoff it finds makes for a strong ending, with Stewart getting one more chance to eat every crumb off the film’s plate and leave nothing behind.
P.S.: Dupieux may be an odd filmmaker, but he’s a very prolific one. He has another new film of his, the animated “Vertiginous,” will serve as the closing-night attraction in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar on Thursday.
The post ‘Full Phil’ Review: Kristen Stewart Eats Woody Harrelson Up in Quentin Dupieux’s Slight, Silly Farce appeared first on TheWrap.
