All-Time High Review

Summary

This film does well in blending the genres of action, comedy, romance, and drama, as it tells the story of two players playing one another whilst falling in love.

All-Time High (original title Nouveaux riches) is a French comedy film directed by Julien Hollande, starring Nassim Lyes, Zoé Marchal, Bastien Trouvé, and Yovel Lekowski. The story is about a cheesy con artist who is in dire need of cash, and a woman with a growing crypto fortune who seriously hit it off. Is she his dream girl or dream target, or worse… is the player about to get played?

All-Time High review and plot summary

Throughout the film, there are many high-energy slapstick and screwball comedy scenes, which see the characters act the craziest and most irrational when trying to make the most sense. There’s lots of yelling, physical movement, and over-the-top situations.

Nassim Lyes plays Thiago, who commits little scams to keep up appearances for his girlfriend Stella, but his mask falls off making a giant thud on the floor, and he becomes more desperate. He plays the cheesy-not-charming character well and delivers his comedic lines effortlessly, especially the scene where he comes clean to his girlfriend about who he is and what he looks like.

Zoé Marchal stars as Stéphanie who is on the verge of becoming extremely rich thanks to cryptocurrency. Her acting is to a high standard as she plays the neurotic cool but insecure girl and both the leads have compelling chemistry on screen. It helps that the script is very well written and involves a lot of storytelling so we’re constantly trying to figure out the characters. It also doesn’t allow for the film’s pace to slow down.

Whilst the character development aspect of the film is strong, the storyline does lack, as I did wonder where the plot was going and what the point of the film was. As both characters are compulsive liars it’s hard to distinguish what their intentions were, leading me to pause and go make a brew.

Although, there were some decent, well-choreographed, and quite violent fight scenes I was not expecting, these added a serious action element to the film and were able to drive the narrative along and keep audiences on their toes.

I will give credit to the voice-over actors here, as the quality has seriously improved. These can affect an audience’s experience when watching a film that’s not in their native language, and sometimes they’re shocking. These, however, were very on-point, and the comedy came across strongly.

With an intense yet heartfelt ending, the film comes full circle as our player does get played but in a way you wouldn’t expect.

Is All-Time High worth watching?

The comedy genre was created to humorously exaggerate situations, language, action, and characters, and All-Time High ticks all these boxes with its take on screwball comedy. The film does well in keeping its audience entertained for the one-hour and forty-minute runtime and is worth watching for its well-played characters and clever script.

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