Full Phil
What a lovely father-daughter movie!
Completely insane and wild, but also genuinely funny and somehow charming. And whatever conclusion you end up coming to by the end, watching all of this unfold is undeniably entertaining.
The film follows one evening in Paris during a trip between wealthy American father Philip and his adult daughter Madeleine, as Philip desperately tries to reconnect with her. Her mother died when she was young, and it’s clearly a painful subject for both of them — something they avoid talking about just as much as they avoid each other. Philip is obsessive, controlling, slightly insane and obsessed with structure and rules. Madeline, meanwhile, absolutely doesn’t give a single fuck. All she really cares about is eating good food in insane amounts and finishing the weird retro 50s noir sci-fi movie she’s watching, which is shot like a parody-remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon.
And if this setup sounds too simple, don’t worry — the film quickly becomes much stranger than that. What starts as a situational comedy slowly turns into a completely absurd spiral of tension, misunderstandings and emotional chaos. In the background, you have all these side characters constantly interfering with Philip and Madeline’s already broken dynamic, making their inability to connect even more painful and ridiculous at the same time.
At its core, this is a story about two people who fundamentally cannot communicate. Philip desperately wants to feel some form of love or appreciation from his daughter, while Madeline is just as emotionally closed off as he is. And that emotional agony becomes the most interesting and funniest part of the film, because underneath all the screaming, awkwardness and absurdity, both of them clearly have things they want to say. The movie waits almost until the very end to reveal that these people actually do carry grief, emotions and deep internal baggage.
The retro noir sci-fi film Madeline watches throughout the movie mirrors what’s happening between them surprisingly well. She essentially becomes the monster from that story, while Philip turns into this unwilling victim carrying the emotional weight and resentment of his daughter. On the surface, yes, it’s about generational conflict and family trauma, but more broadly it’s about how painfully difficult it can be for two generations to truly understand each other, even when they share history, blood and loss. Everyone carries some kind of internal cross, and when you keep forcing relationships that maybe were never built for emotional openness, eventually something inside you explodes.
One of the best additions to this chaos is Lucie, played by Charlotte Le Bon, a luxury hotel employee who witnesses one of Philip and Madeline’s arguments and immediately assumes Philip is abusive. She decides to keep watching him and “protect” Madeline, which slowly drives Philip into absolute madness. Lucie becomes this hilarious outside observer constantly present in the frame, making an already furious man completely lose his mind.
Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart are both fantastic here, which honestly is not surprising at all. They perfectly balance the absurdity of these characters with the hidden emotional weight underneath them. Still, I really wish the movie gave these characters a bit more space and depth to explore something more meaningful. In the end, the film doesn’t fully reach the emotional potential it feels like it’s aiming for. It brings you to interesting ideas and themes, but never fully develops them further. What you ultimately get is a short, entertaining and very absurd little film that works more because of the sheer insanity of what happens during its second half than because of its deeper exploration of family trauma. More than anything, it leaves you smiling and wondering: “what the fuck did I just watch?”
And honestly, if I could eat the way Kristen Stewart eats in this movie while another person gained the weight for me, the outcome would probably be exactly the same as what happens here.
6/10
