Quentin Dupieux's Full Phil is a tedious, pretentious comedy starring Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart that you should completely avoid.
Sometimes when you watch a movie, it might be nearly three hours, and yet it can fly by like a breeze. Other times, like in the case with Quentin Dupieux's Full Phil, a movie can come in at a brisk 78 minutes and feel like a slog that steals away half of your day.
Irreverent, absurd, and full of verbose dialogue, Full Phil tells the story of a father and daughter attempting to reconnect after years of estrangement on a vacation to Paris. Though the concept is intriguing, as it weaves a fictional black-and-white movie throughout the story that pulls from classic cinema, the result is proof why we need to leave this brand of absurdist humor behind completely — or at least Dupieux should.
Kristen Stewart and Woody Harrelson Do the Best They Can With an Inane Script What becomes immediately apparent when you first meet Kristen Stewart's Madeleine Doom is that she is a consumer. In her first shot, she is wolfing down muffins and quiche while raptly watching an old Hollywood movie in the swanky hotel suite her father has paid for them both to stay in. Woody Harrelson, who plays Philip Doom, Madeleine's father, is the typical high-maintenance American dad.
He's not comfortable with hotel staff coming to deal with the clogged toilet that Madeleine's left, he is worried about crumbs on the carpet, complains about hotel staff like a Karen, and is continuously pacing around trying to redeem an already doomed vacation. Related The 20 Best Comedies of the 2020s So Far, Ranked The 2020s have, so far, been the decade for great comedies.
Posts 2 By Robert Lee III Both Stewart and Harrelson are doing the best they can with a wordy script that repeats the same points over and over again. Madeleine's mother died when she was young, leaving Phil to raise his daughter on his own while depressed over the loss of his wife.
As a result, Madeleine is stand-offish, flippant, and downright cruel to her father's attempts at reconciliation. It's never clear what exactly caused the two to drift apart, only that they seem to be permanently trapped in an unhealthy dynamic that most fathers and daughters grow out of when the child becomes an adult. Madeleine and Phil spend the majority of the film bickering about their relationship.
Phil wants her to admit that, despite his faults, he was, at times, a good father. Madeleine seems content to run up the room service bill and eat non-stop to a sickening degree, blasé about her father's attempts at having a real conversation. All the while, the two are watched over by an oddly insightful and pesteringly attentive hotel worker, Lucie , who has her suspicions about Phil.
Though Le Bon is surely the best part of Full Phil, not even her well-timed comedic moments can save what feels like a walk through purgatory with no escape.
'Full Phil' Proves Absurdist Comedy Can't Be Done By Anyone The problem at the heart of Full Phil is how insufferably pretentious it can be. The black and white film that Madeleine spends her time watching — which is intercut into the movie — draws inspiration from stories like Frankenstein and Creature From the Black Lagoon.
But rather than cleverly play off of these classic films, the movie casts Eric Wareheim and Tim Heidecker to play two bumbling pseudo-scientists who chase after a fish monster that has recently decapitated a woman in the swamp. Their dialogue is as tedious as it is unfunny, reeking of a hipster freshman at NYU's first attempt at a script that might do better as fanfiction than a film.
But, at least in the case of the film-within-a-film, this tone and dialogue make some sense. The true cinema sins come when Stewart and Harrelson are on screen. I have to wonder if Dupieux, who penned the screenplay as well as directed, has ever had a full, meaningful conversation with a woman, because it sure doesn't feel like it in this movie. Stewart's Madeleine acts not just bratty but intentionally mean.
She's careless to the point of sociopathy and seems to care for no one but herself. Her narcissistic character has the depth of a puddle, and the worst part is that she just isn't funny. The dialogue is so stilted and unrealistic it feels like a joke. If there was ever a trope for"woman being written by a man," it would be Madeleine's character.
Meanwhile, Harrelson's Phil, who spends the movie either wrapped up in hysterics or whining when he bloats up bigger than a balloon, is equally exhausting. His lines could be boiled down to a couple of sentences that are repeated constantly throughout the movie. He's not a violent person, he's not angry, and he just wants to connect with his daughter.
He's pitiful, but if we're meant to feel sympathetic to him, all of that melts away by the end when all he does is whine and literally cry out while being completely immobile. There's a fair bit of physical comedy in the part, which Harrelson grasps easily, but it's not enough to save Full Phil. COLLIDER. Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie?
Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite 🌀Everything Everywhere ☢️Oppenheimer 🐦Birdman 🪙No Country for Old Men FIND YOUR FILM → QUESTION 1 / 10TONE 01 What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind. ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once.
CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching. DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10THEME 02 Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours? AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity.
BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10STRUCTURE 03 How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means. AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different.
BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10VILLAIN 04 What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you? AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face.
BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10ENDING 05 What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like? AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it.
BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10WORLD 06 Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible. AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person.
CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10CRAFT 07 What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable. AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience.
CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10PROTAGONIST 08 What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you. ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure.
BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10PACE 09 How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately. AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal.
BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10AFTERMATH 10 What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want? AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about.
BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.
REVEAL MY FILM → The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is… Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works. BEST PICTURE 2020 Parasite You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another.
Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
BEST PICTURE 2023 Everything Everywhere All at Once You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful.
This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about. BEST PICTURE 2024 Oppenheimer You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens.
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
BEST PICTURE 2015 Birdman You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible.
Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all. BEST PICTURE 2008 No Country for Old Men You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning.
The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest.
No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 'Full Phil' Fails on Almost All Fronts, Thank God It's Short The only redeeming factor for Full Phil is the length, though the final minutes drag on as everything turns into slow-mo and we're forced to watch a half-hearted flashback that likely would have been better situated near the beginning of the film.
The actors are decent, but there's hardly enough material to really dig into. The setting is lush, taking place in a bougie Parisian hotel that looks plucked from the pages of the new season of White Lotus.
When Madeleine and Phil step outside, Paris is embroiled in a violent protest, which the film haphazardly shrugs off as if to say this is France every day, and these American tourists aren't bothered by Molotov cocktails because that's probably what it's like in America, too. Subscribe to our newsletter for clearer takes on cinema Looking for clearer film criticism and smarter festival context?
Subscribe to our newsletter for candid takes on cinema — from Cannes selections to unexpected releases — that unpack what works, what doesn't, and why it matters on screen. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. Full Phil accomplishes the rare task of making the viewer less and less sympathetic to these two exhausting characters.
The only person you might feel for is Stewart herself, who spends the entire film stuffing her mouth to the brim with food . Perhaps if there was an actual point to the absurdity, a moment when the film pulls back the curtain to reveal some ugly truth, it would redeem the story. But it never does.
Glimmers of depth are seen in the last few minutes of the film, when the movie moves into full-body horror mode in an exciting turn, but by then, the movie is over. Considering Cannes used to be one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, Dupieux's entry feels like a legacy buying his way in simply based on previous association, and it's a shame.
The festival's lineup could certainly use a shake-up, and this is just one tired example of the movies we could see far less of. REVIEW 2 10 Full Phil Despite the talent in front of the camera, Dupieux's film lacks humor, depth, and anything redeemable beyond its short run-time.
Like Follow Followed Comedy Release Date May 16, 2026 Runtime 78 minutes Director Quentin Dupieux Writers Quentin Dupieux Producers Hugo Sélignac Cast Full Phil follows Philip Doom, a wealthy American industrialist, as he attempts to reconnect with his daughter Madeleine during a luxurious trip to Paris. Their stay is disrupted by French cuisine, a 1950s horror film, and an intrusive hotel employee. Expand Collapse Pros & Cons
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