The stars

"Five years after our first feature film, we thought it was time to work on a new project and, for three months, we developed the idea of a film set in a shopping mall. We presented it to our director Jonathan Barré, and when we saw him reading it, we immediately said that it was not good. Jonathan explained to us that it was too complicated and advised us to start with a simple anecdote. He then told us that he had just heard about a guy, in the United States, who had learned all the prices of household appliances to participate in the Price is Right: we saw the photo of the man, and everything came to us in 48 hours" - David Maris

The stars is the second film of the Palmashow (Grégoire Ludig, David Marsais) after La folle histoire de Max et Léon (2016) and it must be admitted that it is quite a disappointment. We wonder how after many successful sketches and taking a humor quite close to that of the comedy group The Dummies (parodies, lines destined to become cult, atypical characters.). 

Of course, making a successful comedy is not an easy thing to do, especially for those who knew the ZAZ films (David and Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams). The stars fail to make us laugh and we look with a sad eye at the two comedians Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais who seem to be really short of ideas and do not manage to hold our attention throughout the story. One could almost say that we are bored in front of this comedy based on the principle of the Buddy movie, the satire of the television games and a parody of the corporate world (we will think in particular of Darty and TF1 by its outrageous and popular programs).

Daniel (Grégoire Ludig) is a failed singer who works in an appliance store and has to continue living after a messy divorce. To pay off his numerous debts, he must find a way to earn money, especially since the store where he works will soon close. To achieve his goals, he decides to make his colleague Stéphane (David Marsais) and himself look like thieves in order to get fired and kidnaps him to take him by force to a TV game show resembling by its concept to the Just Price show. While everything opposes Daniel and Stephane, they will have to learn to collaborate together and make a name for themselves. However, nothing will go as planned and this mismatched but resourceful duo will have to show an unfailing will to succeed.

The movie The Stars could have been a comedy as successful as The Madness of Max and Leon (2016) if the trio Jonathan Barré, Gregoire Ludig, David Marsais had really bothered to propose a scenario more rhythmic and much more worked. The lack of rhythm gives rise to a quickly boring film in which we do not find the ferocity and playful humor of the Palmashow. It is therefore easy to understand why the theater was empty (a private screening) and we can only encourage you to wait for the broadcast on TF1 to discover this failed comedy.

The Stars (Les Vedettes)
Directed by Jonathan Barré
Produced by Sidonie Dumas, Alain Goldman
Written by Jonathan Barré, Grégoire Ludig, David Marsais
Starring Grégoire Ludig, David Marsais, Julien Pestel, Damien Gillard, Alexandra Gentil, Harmandeep Palminder, Gaëlle Lebert, Juliette Plumecocq-Mech, Théo Gross, Jonathan Barré
Music by Charles Ludig
Cinematography : Sébastien Cros
Edited by Delphine Guilbaud
Production companies : Gaumont, Légende Films, in coproduction with Blagbuster Productions and TF1 Films Production
Distributed by Gaumont (France)
Release date : February 9, 2022 (France)
Running time : 102 minutes

Seen on February 23, 2022 at Gaumont Disney Village, Room 4 seat A18

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