Acide

Acide (2023) Review Rating: 9/10

Just Philippot's *Acide* is a visually stunning French thriller about a family surviving lethal acid rains. While the plot wobbles, its technical brilliance overshadows flaws. Olivier Boonjing's cinematography is jaw-dropping: toxic fog, neon chaos, and harrowing close-ups immerse you. Guillaume Canet and Laetitia Dosch deliver perfect, career-defining performances, balancing desperation and tenderness. François-Eudes Chanfrault's score amplifies dread with minimalist drones and haunting piano motifs. The story's ambiguity might frustrate, but *Acide* favors visceral emotion over closure. A sensory triumph where artistry eclipses narrative hiccups. Unforgettable.

Maybe prescient is the word I'm circling around here? Enter a very French tale about the future imperfect, amounting to more or less an environmental horror yarn evoking those 1970s nature run amuck flicks. The cinematography and editing grab and grip, especially the intro, vibrating almost with a sense of January 6 chaos. But as the tale reveals it's a survive-if-you-can story of fractured family amid a fractured world and Mother Nature will have her day on Anvers! Or something. The narrative traipses plausible ish, and the effects come across as not so unbelievable. My kingdom for a concrete bunker already!

The premise of acid-rain and climate collapse was potentially interesting and thus why I watched it in the first place. But the cinematography and effects were confusing, I couldn't tell when or where's it was safe to go. So that ends up being disappointing. But the worst are the characters and their "development". You get a very hazy backstory, a sick girlfriend, and hostile divorced parents with a teenage daughter who lives up to the stereotypical obnoxious teenage girl role. Her father has this nefarious past, one of many storylines that go nowhere. It's hard to say if she even likes her parents. They have no real heart-to-heart talks because they're running for safety. I get that -except - the daughter makes no attempts because ALL SHE DOES is scream non-stop for either mama or papa...mostly because she thinks she knows everything and ignores their attempts to keep her safe.. and then she starts screaming for them again.

This could have been an interesting climate-change horror story, instead it becomes a story of people we don't get to know...except that they are stuck with an unlikeable teenager who, I suspect, none of us end up rooting for.

Really wanted to like this and that's all I can say is I like it. It could of been so much better but the writers need some improvement on the characters.

The mother was not likeable and the daughter was so annoying, I found myself hoping for them to be killed off. Not sure why in last twenty years writers feel the need for children to be little aholes in every movie now. I miss the days of the kids like in Goonies or Stand By Me. Kids aren't stupid in real life for the most part so why always depict them that way. Children can certainly grasp serious situations and act appropriately and not be the reason others are killed like so many movies do now. The daughter made this almost unwatchable.

I like the story and they really could of had an amazing movie. The filming and special effects were good. This could of been a tv show for 2-3 seasons.

I watched this movie and thought the idea is good but why oh why do directors insist on stupid teenagers being stupid. It seems to be an after 2000 thing where teenagers seem to be spolt intitled idiots. In modern disaster films about global warming etc people moan about this that and the other but what do they expect. They caused it! To be honest we deserve everything that is going to happen to us. I'd love to be more positive about the future but as long as corruption and greedy people run this planet well this film theme could be the norm! A good movie should have characters we root for. I'm afraid in this one I didn't care enough about them to want them to survive!