Written by Maria Athayde

20/100

Bye Bye Morons written, directed and starring Albert Duponte as Jean-Baptiste Cuchas is one of the weirdest and worst movies I’ve seen all year. On the surface, it had an interesting premise a woman, Suze Trappet, (Virginie Efira) dying with an autoimmune disease; a disgruntled employee – who was just fired from his job – and a blind man Serge Blin (Nicolas Marié) form an unlikely friendship while on the run from the cops and in search of Trappet’s long lost child. But beyond this unusual premise a lot of this movie just gets “lost in translation”.

The comedy of error and running gags throughout the movie do not translate well to non-Francophone speakers. Most of the gags were mispronunciation of French words and names that went way over my head given my limited proficiency with the French language. The subtitles also do not the jokes justice.

Beyond this basic premise and the pairing of three unlikely people nothing really happens. They basically run from the cops and make a few jokes that I did not understand. It is just one of the movies that is too specifically rooted in language for audiences that aren’t familiar with France and French culture. While this movie did well in the French box office I have a hard time seeing how it will find an audience elsewhere.

Bye Bye Morons Trailer

Bye Bye Morons was screened as part of the 2021 edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival and is currently available to rent and purchase from most major VOD platforms.

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