Alibi.com

After co-directing the cult comedy Babysitting (2014) with Nicolas Benamou and its sequel Babysitting 2 (2015), it's an understatement to say that we were really looking forward to Philippe Lacheau's first solo film. So don't look any further for the jubilant comedy of the beginning of the year, Alibi.com easily stands out as one of the nice surprises of the beginning of the year.

While we could have expected a found-footage comedy like the two previous films, Philippe Lacheau, co-writer, director and lead actor, returns with a much more traditional form to tell us a story that is perfectly in tune with the times. We discover Grégory Van Huffel, the creator of a company called Alibi.com, who founded it with the help of his friend and associate Mehdi (Julien Arruti) and his new employee Augustin (Tarek Boudali). The main objective of this company is to make custom alibis of all kinds to save their clients from any tricky situation they might find themselves in. The introductory scene easily illustrates the main mission of this company through the successful cameos of several artists (Vincent Desagnat, JoyStar, Michele Laroque, Kad Merad).

While current comedies tend to apply predefined formulas in order to maximise their chances of success, Alibi.com prefers to offer an original universe that perfectly illustrates the desire of the director and his band of friends to remain faithful to the universe developed by numerous sketches in the troupe La Bande à Fifi. Two of the troupe's members, Philippe Lacheau and Julien Arruti, wrote the screenplay and it is easy to see the pleasure they took in concocting an irreverent comedy that mocks the wealthy, illegal immigrants and show business, with many references to cult films (Taxi, Star Wars, Babysitting, Mary at any price, Bloodsport, etc.). In the same way, behind this romantic comedy in which the character Grégory Van Huffel meets a beautiful blonde Flo Martin (Elodie Fontant, perfect), the director does not hesitate to criticize all his romantic comedies, which are too sterile and too often overdone.

The beginning of the year has shown with Raid dingue, L'ascension and especially Albi.com that French comedy has nothing to envy to American behemoths that lack realism most of the time. The film easily reminds us of the bygone days of the great French comedies in which duos like Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu gave comedy all the nobility it needed. Similarly, the film is not a simple vaudeville despite the presence of a fickle husband (father of the main character's girlfriend) but rather an irresistibly strong troublion. It is true that not every scene works perfectly, but the actors have so much energy that it is almost impossible to resist this comedy, which has everything to become a cult as Babysitting did. As in Babysitting, the zany situations follow one another at a frantic pace and the film does not hesitate to scratch our society for its many shortcomings. In this respect, the song parody works perfectly and reminds us of Michael Youn's.

Clearly superior to Babysitting 2, Alibi.com shows once again that Philippe Lacheau is not only a good comedian but above all a real film enthusiast and his direction and script participation contain many ideas of a rare efficiency for a first (solo) film. As in Babysitting, the film benefits from numerous successful supporting roles played by accomplished actors such as Didier Bourdon, Nathalie Baye and Philippe Duquesne. The cast also includes actors Medi Sadoun, Samy Naceri and the singer La Fouine (Laouni Mouhid). It's impossible not to be won over by this comedy, which establishes Philippe Lacheau and his crew as the rising stars of French comedy. Finally, the real revelation of the film is the young actress Elodie Fontan, seen in Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu? (2014) and Babysitting 2 (2015). She displays such a comedic potential that she stands out as an undeniable added value to the film.

We are now eagerly awaiting Mariage (blanc) pour tous, the first film directed by actor Tarek Boudali, based on a script he wrote himself. He will be reunited with his fellow actors Philippe Lacheau, Julien Arruti and Philippe Duquesne.

Alibi.com
Directed by Philippe Lacheau
Written by Julien Arruti, Philippe Lacheau, Pierre Dudan
Produced by Alexandra Fechner Franck Milcent
With Philippe Lacheau, Élodie Fontan, Julien Arruti, Tarek Boudali, Didier Bourdon, Nathalie Baye
Image : Dominique Colin
Editing: Olivier Michaut-Alchourroun
Music: Maxime Desprez, Michael Tordjman
Production company: Fechner Films
Distributed by StudioCanal
Release date: 15 February 2017 (France)
Running time: 90 minutes

Seen on 25 January 2017 in a private screening at CINE+ / CANAL+ (Boulogne)

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