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A Difficult Year

A Difficult Year

Comedy · 2023

Compulsive spenders Albert and Bruno are in debt up to their necks. While seeking help from community workers to get their lives back on track, they run into a group of young green activists. Lured by the free beer and snacks rather than by the ideals of eco-activists, Albert and Bruno find themselves joining the movement without much conviction.

Movie details

A Difficult Year

“What's the worst that could happen to them?”

2023 Comedy 2h 0m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

5.9 / 10

Community rating

Compulsive spenders Albert and Bruno are in debt up to their necks. While seeking help from community workers to get their lives back on track, they run into a group of young green activists. Lured by the free beer and snacks rather than by the ideals of eco-activists, Albert and Bruno find themselves joining the movement without much conviction.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over A Difficult Year?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

A Friendly Tale...

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Dead Tired

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The Speech

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Alter Ego

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A quiet, middle-aged man spirals into obsession and paranoia when a charismatic look-alike moves in next door, featuring the exact same face—and a full head of hair.

Striking The Palace

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Eva, 20, joins Safietou, Djaoua, Violette and Simone, a team of chambermaids at one of Paris’s finest Palace Hotels. She discovers the poor working conditions of these invisible women, who work tirelessly to keep the high standards of these luxurious hotels, where one night can cost their annual salary. Many are not even employed by the hotels directly but by sub-contractors, and are therefore particularly vulnerable. While on strike to fight against subcontracting and to obtain better working conditions, they come up with a colorful idea : having their own “Fashion Week” in front of the hotel!

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In this winsome comedy, an entitled Economics professor pursues a tactic to buy an ailing widow’s mansion for nothing, but he quickly realizes that his seemingly foolproof strategy won’t be as easy as he thought.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Éric Toledano · Olivier Nakache

Written by

Éric Toledano · Olivier Nakache

Pio Marmaï

Pio Marmaï

Albert Laprade

Jonathan Cohen

Jonathan Cohen

Bruno Ambrosi

Noémie Merlant

Noémie Merlant

Cactus

Mathieu Amalric

Mathieu Amalric

Henri Tomasi

Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet

Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet

Quinoa

Luàna Bajrami

Luàna Bajrami

Antilope

S

Sandrine Briard

Sirène

Court is in session

Put A Difficult Year on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Adrenaline Seeker

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Prestige Tourist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.