Full Phil

Quentin Dupieux has repeatedly proved himself the king of the cinematic punchline and the master of simple but effective absurdist premises, including everything from a giant fly (Mandibles) to a serial killing tyre (Rubber). His work rate has always been on the Michael Winterbottom end of the proliferation scale and he had two films at Cannes this year – animation Vertiginous, which screened in Director’s Fortnight and Full Phil, which was tucked away in the out-of-competition Midnight Screenings sidebar.

Anecdotally, it’s worth mentioning that many of the critics in line for the first screening of the day in France, weren’t there because they had commissions to write about Full Phil but because they were pretty certain that Dupieux would serve up a bite-sized good time, which proved to be the case. The French filmmaker also offers a two-for-one deal, embedding a creature feature pastiche within a modern tale of a bickering father and daughter. As with many Dupieux films, beneath the laughter there’s a fair bit of insight into the absurdity of human relationships.

Dupieux has worked with big Francophone names before, including Jean Dujardin and, most notably, Adèle Exarchopoulos – who has seized the opportunity to prove she’s a comic force to be reckoned with in Mandibles and last year’s The Piano Accident. His latest, however, stands a chance of being the mainstream English-speaking world’s gateway drug to his back catalogue thanks to the presence of Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart.

Harrelson plays rich American Philip Doom, who has taken his daughter Madeleine (Stewart) to an expensive hotel in Paris in a bid to patch things up. What things exactly are debatable but there’s enough friction to risk an immediate blaze. Philip is a stickler and a keeper upper of appearances, meaning that his daughter’s incursion onto “his side” of the suite has already put him on the warpath, particularly as she has blocked his toilet and he is resolutely refusing to call the hotel maintenance team to fix it because of how it will look.

Stewart plays Madeleine with a desultory air, fully aware that she’s pushing her dad’s buttons not least by only half paying attention to him as she watches a black-and-white B-movie horror. This self-contained treat is returned to repeatedly and involves comedy duo Tim & Eric (Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim) playing scientists who hatch a kooky plan to resurrect a man-eating, man-sized swamp creature – I wonder if this wasn’t originally intended to be a stand-alone film but didn’t quite have enough mileage in it, but as a subplot, it works just fine.

As Madeleine is arguing with Phil, she is also working her way through the hotel’s room-service menu, mostly eaten with her hands. The amount of food Stewart consumes during the course of this film feels in itself like a joke aimed at those who say stars never eat. The icing on the cake of the absurdity levels is the arrival of hotel worker Lucie (Charlotte Le Bon) who decides to stick around their suite in case Phil turns violent. Dupieux finds the sweet spot between the ridiculous and the ordinary, with Harrelson’s ability to play it straight even as strange things begin to happen to him a crucial element. The whole point of the central joke Dupieux sets up is that you don’t have to be a Monty Python fan to see it coming (although that will almost certainly tip you off sooner). The joy is in knowing what’s coming but being unsure of when and how it will happen.

This may not be as narratively complex as some of Dupieux’s other films but the script is sharp and some of the visual humour – particularly an episode in which Phil take a fag break oblivious to a riot – is in the Zucker Brothers league. Meanwhile the electro score from Siriusmo adds a lot to the mood. It may not be quite as satisfying as some of his output but as a tragicomic taster menu for Dupieux’s unique skills and style it hits the spot.

Reviewed on: 09 Jun 2026