No. 76 (2021) MISS. SEPT. 25th.

 

Film No. 76 (2021)  September 25th.  11:00 AM   Cinema 1   LUNA,  Leederville. 

"To be someone!"(Alex answers the question, "Why do you want to be Miss France?" and follows her answer with a warm sensuous smile).

It's hard to know exactly what this lavish, overlong, feel-good film is saying. Follow your dreams is certainly one of the strands developed but because Alex (Alexandre Wetter) is a male trying to win the Miss France beauty pageant there are themes of feminist resilience and recognition but I didn't feel confident it's message had substance.

Director Ruben Alves is better known in France as an actor/writer (THE GILDED CAGE), generally playing minor roles in French T.V. series. MISS is his first feature film. Made for $12M U.S. MISS is a clean cut, pretty film. Wetter is the beauty on screen that gives MISS that shiny look. But Alves uses every cliché available to him while never deviating from the formulaic path already paved so many time before.

Alex is a boy brought up in foster homes his parents having been killed in a car-crash. As an adult he lives in a household of misfits in a suburb of Paris. This loving adopted family support his every decision, for better or worse. When he decides his dream is to win Miss France, in the same way Rocky Balboa wanted to be world champ, all stops are out to get Alex over the line. Everything you see in MISS, other than Wetter's unique beauty, you've seen before.

The French mainstream, film loving public, are loving MISS and while I have my reservations, I get why it has a following. France, is exiting from it's COVID hangover and a  flagship film or two on hand to attract the masses back to the cinema can't be bad for the industry. MISS is one such film. That's got to be a plus.  7GUMS.