FULL PHIL After Dark

Returning to the English language for the first time since 2013’s WRONG COPS, Quentin Dupieux (SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING, AFI FEST 2022) serves up another feast of gonzo comedy in a tale of attempted family bonding gone awry. Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart star as Philip and Madeleine Doom, staying in a luxury Parisian hotel suite that the wealthy Philip has procured for a father-daughter vacation intended to mend fences between them. Complicating matters is concerned hotel employee Lucie (Charlotte Le Bon) who begins monitoring every interaction between the two after witnessing an argument between them. Across a day marked by sickening amounts of food, civil unrest, a vintage horror film and Lucie’s increasing intrusion into their lives, Philip and Madeleine make one last attempt to have the other understand their point of view and determine if their relationship is salvageable at all. Brilliantly cast with Harrelson and Stewart playing with meta perceptions of their public images to great effect while Emma Mackey, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim ham it up in the in-universe ‘50s horror movie, Dupieux’s latest absurdist film fills the belly with so much laughter that one fears they might explode in the process. –Eli Prysant