{"id":591251,"date":"2026-05-18T21:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/591251\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T21:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:03:11","slug":"full-philreview-quentin-dupieuxs-unfulfilling-father-daughter-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/591251\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Phil’Review: Quentin Dupieux\u2019s Unfulfilling Father-Daughter Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rendered with the broad strokes of an overstated stage drama, the new surrealist comedy from Quentin Dupieux<\/a> is light and largely uneventful. Despite running a mere 78 minutes, it plays like an outstretched initial draft of something potentially much more meaningful, centering on the rocky relationship between the nearly sixty-year-old Phillip Doom (Woody Harrelson<\/a>) and his thirty-something daughter Madeline (Kristen Stewart<\/a>) on a reparative trip to Paris.<\/p>\n

Dupieux, his own cinematographer as usual, captures the duo\u2019s sprawling hotel suite in bright, luxurious hues, which makes it all the more amusing when Phillip draws strict lines about whose side is whose. Although Phillip has organized the vacation for them to reconnect, Madeline \u2014 a seeming glutton \u2014 only seems to want to chomp down on decadent room service while watching a 1950s \u201cCreature from the Black Lagoon\u201d-style sci-fi throwback on her portable DVD player.<\/p>\n

\"Renate<\/a> \"Cristian<\/a> <\/p>\n

Scenes from this film<\/a>-within-a-film play out in full, and feature Emma Mackey as a damsel escaping a hungry, humanoid fish creature, while a pair of mad scientists, played by comedy duo Tim Heidecker<\/a> and Eric Wareheim, attempt to study the ravenous creature. There are parallels to be found between the monster\u2019s hunger and Madeline\u2019s appetite, as well as between its domineering presence and that of Phillip, who hovers over his daughter with excessive rules, but once you spot these themes, they don\u2019t meaningfully evolve.<\/p>\n

A few typically Dupieux-like oddities do emerge, like a misunderstanding leading to enthusiastic hotel employee Lucie (Charlotte Le Bon) keeping an uncomfortably close eye on Phillip, lest he lose his temper. Eventually, Phillip\u2019s belly begins to engorge the more his Madeline imbibes culinary delicacies, gesturing towards an interesting facet of late parenthood by mirroring a father adopting his daughter\u2019s gastronomic debts the way he might bear the brunt of her emotional burdens. However, by the time these connections come to light, too much effort has been spent capturing both lead actors (otherwise masters of their craft) engaging in repetitive dialogue that lives on the surface, and leaves little room for mischievous subtext, even as they exchange witty barbs.<\/p>\n

The story threatens to fly off the rails when the duo is forced to wade through ongoing, fiery protests just to get to dinner, but this ends up a mere jab at the Parisian social fabric from afar (at best, it\u2019s about the ignorance of American tourists), resulting in little by way of enjoyable or illuminating political contrast with the movie\u2019s familiar woes. Few of the film\u2019s ideas truly connect with one another, leaving its lead stars adrift in the process, forcing them to conjure three dimensional details from a script that, intentionally or otherwise, feels paper thin.<\/p>\n

To say that \u201cFull Phil<\/a>\u201d eventually finds its soul would be overstating things, but it does \u2014 by the time it mercifully concludes \u2014 eventually present its characters as living, breathing human beings with a shared past and a complex relationship. But we\u2019re talking about the final few minutes here, up to which point it\u2019s just a tale of a father and daughter swimming in circles and treading water. <\/p>\n

On one hand, there\u2019s perhaps no more honest depiction of a relationship between a parent and their adult child having hit a wall, and a point of no return. On the other hand, pushing against this inevitability is a much more intriguing concept than simply presenting it as-is, over and over again, even when its specifics are disguised by a fable.<\/p>\n

Grade: C+<\/p>\n

\u201cFull Phil\u201d premiered at the 2026\u00a0Cannes<\/a>\u00a0Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.<\/p>\n

Want to stay up to date on IndieWire\u2019s film\u00a0reviews<\/a>\u00a0and critical thoughts?\u00a0Subscribe here<\/a>\u00a0to our newsletter In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings \u2014\u00a0all only available to subscribers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rendered with the broad strokes of an overstated stage drama, the new surrealist comedy from Quentin Dupieux is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[160823,96,10923,2332,202294,68496,2839,202295,129,56,54,55,97586],"class_list":{"0":"post-591251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-cannes","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-festivals","11":"tag-film","12":"tag-full-phil","13":"tag-kristen-stewart","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-quentin-dupieux","16":"tag-reviews","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom","20":"tag-woody-harrelson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}