French director Léonor Serraille’s debut film could easily have been unbearably twee. The fact that it isn’t, at all, is a tribute both to her unsentimental storytelling, and to the prickly strength of Laetitia Dosch’s central performance.
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What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
It is clear that Serraille has made a portrait of a very specific individual but that she’s also saying something more general about her own generation.
Thrillingly capturing both time and place and fizzing with non-judgemental empathy and cinematic flair, this is a magnificent debut that catapults Laetitia Dosch into the front rank of French actresses.
Serraille avoids every miserablist cul-de-sac and tries for something much more radical: optimism.
Screen International by Lisa Nesselson
This first film by writer-director Léona Serraille is full of snap and surprises.
The Playlist by Nikola Grozdanovic
Dosch, though she’s been appearing more and more in French films of recent years (including Maïwenn’s “My King”), will make heads turn in the role of her career thus far. Her Paula is instantly charming, never too outrageous, hilarious and supremely sympathetic. She will steal your heart.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
[An] attractive and sympathetically acted movie in a classic New Wave style.
Serraille studied literature before switching to cinema, and her sharp attention to the detail distinguishes Jeune femme from so many first-time indie features.