The aimless, wandering of this twenty-something is a little kooky but rarely unfunny, and Côté flourishes as a woman positively drained by the prospect of having to move forward at all.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Shot on gorgeous black-and-white 35 mm that only seems to enhance the melancholic drabness of the events it depicts, Tu Dors Nicole is an especially wispy, French-Canadian addition to an irresistible genre.
The actors, some of whom have worked with Lafleur before, are entirely in tune with his intentions and display a beguiling chemistry.
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
Lafleur delivers an affecting, funny and eccentric -- in the best sense of the word -- meditation on that in-between state that people in their early twenties find themselves, as they are technically old enough to participate fully in all of life’s activities but they still lack the experience to know what they really want or what’s really good for them.
Slant Magazine by Clayton Dillard
Lafleur denies Nicole the angsty treatments given similar characters in films like The Graduate and Frances Ha by refusing to saturate the film with an undergirding sense of charm, where the issues being faced are merely points of spasmodic uncertainty that will erode over time.
New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme
The wry situational humor leaves less of an impression than the near-perfect sense of the heat-drenched wistfulness of summer.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
The night scenes are particularly resonant, mixing humour, suspense and textured visuals. This is the kind of film dream from which you feel reluctant to wake.
It’s hard to build a story entirely on grace notes, but Lafleur comes close.
The Playlist by Oliver Lyttelton
Lafleur maintains a bouncy, consistently funny tone that you'd describe as featherlight, were there not real weight grounding it all. It's a near-miraculous trick, and evidence of the immense talent on display here: he has a real talent for making comedy work visually, and as you might expect from a former editor, a sense not just for landing a joke, but for creating a unique and distinctive rhythm.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
[A] wonderful, lighter-than-air movie.