French Film Festival 2021: Bye Bye Morons (Adieu Les Cons) Review

Written by Molly Magennis / @mollymag3

Directed by Albert Dupontel, Bye Bye Morons (Adieu Les Cons) stars Virginie Efira as Suze Trappet, who after learning she doesn’t have long to live, decides she wants to find her son she gave up for adoption as a teenager. With the help of some unlikely friends, Suze sets out on a bizarre, adventure filled journey to fulfill her one last wish.

This black comedy certainly has its moments, but ultimately falls short at the end where you’d expect it to shine the most.

First off, the thing this film did extremely well was set up the main partnership between Suze and Jean-Baptiste, who aids Suze in finding her son. Jean-Baptiste is a 50-year-old man in the middle of a life crisis and is played by director Albert Dupontel. I found the juxtaposition between these two characters so interesting. At the start of the film we see Jean-Baptiste in a failed suicide attempt at work. He wanted to die. On the other hand you have Suze, who is diagnosed with a terminal illness. She was slowly dying, but unlike Jean-Baptise, she didn’t want to. 

I think this pair worked really well together, they seemed to bounce off each other and I think a lot of the best comedic moments were when these two were together. Unfortunately, the third addition to this little group, a blind man named Mr. Blin (Nicolas Marié), was unfunny and unnecessary and ultimately detracted from the partnership between Suze and Jean-Baptiste who would have been perfectly fine on their own. 

Other than this, I did find Bye Bye Morons funny and captivating for the first two acts of the film. I was invested in the story, I wanted to know what had happened to Suze’s son and I wanted her to find him before it was too late.

That is until she does find him in the third act, and the story goes downhill from there. You’d expect this moment to be the most important part of the film, the most exciting and the most-heartwarming. In some respects it was, but it was executed in the strangest way. It just didn’t hit a nerve with me, it felt like such an odd and weird way to reunite the two. I just felt this moment was a letdown which was disappointing.

Overall, Bye Bye Morons isn’t a bad film at all. It’s funny, well-acted and it’s an entertaining journey to follow along with. Even though the ending wasn’t quite how I imagined or would have liked, I’d still recommend this film if you’re in the mood for something humorous and easy to follow.

To purchase tickets, visit the 2021 Alliance Francaise French Film Festival’s Website.

Catalyst has been the student publication of RMIT University since 1944. We may be older than your parents but we’re still going strong!

Sign up for Catalyst Magazine

Get the latest on what's happening
* = required field